The name Taíno means “good and noble” and the people were known for being a peaceful tribe. Classified into three groups, they are referred to as the Western Taíno, Classic Taíno, and Eastern Taíno. Researchers have been able to gather the most evidence from the Classic Taíno, since they are from the highly populated areas of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, and considered the most culturally advanced of the three groups. The majority of information gathered on this website is on the Classic Taíno, due to the readily available published information for this locality. However, there were many bands throughout the West Indies, each with unique differences and characteristics.
Distribution of the peoples and cultures in the West Indies at the time of Columbus (Rouse, 1989).
Anthropologists consider the Taíno culture to have existed from 1100 A.D. to 1524 A.D, having migrated from South, Middle, or North America. More recently, there has been a strong movement, supported by both cultural and genetic research, showing that indigenous Taínos were not completely killed off after Spanish colonization. Rather, many Taíno peoples fled the island or were assimilated with different ethnic groups resulting in mixed or tri-racial ancestry in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
(Rouse, 1992; Rouse, 1986; Bertranpetit et al., 2001)
The Taino 