There is a large present day effort to trace indigenous Taíno lineage. This effort is taking place in various parts of the world including Puerto Rico, Florida, and New Jersey. People of native decent are gathering information to compile a Taíno genealogy database. There is also a strong effort to reclaim books, pre-Columbian artifacts, and other objects that have been removed from the Taíno national homeland.
A Jatibonicu Taino Island Girl from the town
of Morovis of the Jatibonicu Region. Image retrieved from http://www.taino-tribe.org/jatiboni.html.
Much of this movement is contentious for historians, scholars, and governments, since the Taíno have been labeled as extinct. However, between the people who escaped the Spanish by fleeing the islands and going deep into the forest, as well as the women who were assimilated with Spanish and African populations, parts of the Taíno culture have remained a permanent part of the island’s heritage.
Genetic research is proving that as a result of intermarriage, a mixed or tri-racial ancestry among the people in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic is higher than originally assumed. The National Science Foundation shows that 61% of the Puerto Rican population has indigenous mitochondrial DNA. Of this, 84-88% come from the single tribe of the Boriken Taíno. Furthermore, in the 2010 census, there was a 48% increase in people identifying as Taíno, which translates to about 19,000 people.
(Bertranpetit et al., 2001)
The Taino 