Haiti's History
The earliest known inhabitants of Haiti reached the island about 2600 BC, using huge dugout canoes that allowed them to ride the current from South America and the southern tip of the Lesser Antilles north and west into the Greater Antilles. They were primarily nomadic hunter-gatherers who used stone tools and who left little behind for archaeologists to examine. A second group, often referred to as the Salanoids or ancient Arawaks, reached Hispaniola about 250 BC. The group, easily traced because of their distinctive ceramics, spread throughout the Antilles.
A third migration, from Venezuela, swept through the Antilles about 2000 years ago, and by AD 700 occupied Haiti and most of the surrounding islands. This society's complex hierarchical structure allowed for specialization in fishing, worship, art and farming Cassava and sweet potato. They called themselves the Taino (friendly people), and an estimated 400,000 of them lived on Hispanola when Italian adventurer Christopher Columbus got off the ship to greet them. Folks on another island had told Columbus that there was gold to be found there, and the anxious Italian set off in the night to find it, accidently dashing the Santa María to pieces on one of Hispaniola's famed coral reefs.
The Tainos sent boats to rescue the Spanish sailors, and Columbus decided that it was God's will (it was Christmas) that the shipless crew set up a a fort, La Villa de Navidad, on the site of present-day Cap-Haïtien. Although most Tainos died during the next 25 years at the hands of Spanish slave drivers (or Spanish viruses), their contributions to the world - barbecue, tobacco, canoe and hammock are all Taino words - live on.
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