In a video doc..........about the Taino of Haiti specifically.....narrated by Kevin Costner...............it said that the oppression from the Spaniards to the Taino was so bad............that the Indians were committing suicide...........they forced them to mine gold............I think they found something more there though......




THE GENOCIDAL END OF THE ARAWAK/TAINO NATIVES ON THE ISLAND OF HISPANIOLAThis section of the genocidal end of the Hispaniolan Taino/Arawaks was revised in August 1999 (including the title of the section).
There is a great debate as to just how many Arawak/Taino inhabited Hispaniola when Columbus landed in 1492. Some of the early Spanish historian/observers claimed there were as many as 3,000,000 to 4,000,000. These numbers seem to be based on very little reliable evidence and are thought to be gross exaggerations. However, since nothing like a census was done, the methods for estimating the numbers are extremely shaky, whether by these early historians or later critics.
One long technical article on the population comes in the with the low estimate of 100,000. Several other modern scholars seem to lean more forcefully in the area of 300,000 to 400,000. Whatever the number, what happened to them is extremely tragic. They were not immune to European diseases, especially smallpox, and the Spanish worked them unmercifully in the mines and fields. By 1507 the Spanish were settled and able to do a more reliable job of counting the Arawak/Tainos. It is generally agreed that by 1507 their numbers had shrunk to 60,000. By 1531 the number was down to 600. Today there are no easily discerned traces of the Arawak/Taino at all except for some of the archaeological remains that have been found. Not only on Hispaniola, but also across the Windward Passage in Cuba, complete genocide was practiced on these natives.
The next three paragraphs were added in August 1999.
It is important to pause and think about what is claimed here. The claim is not that the entire population of CARIBBEAN (and possibly even Floridian) Taino/Arawaks were wiped out, but that population which was on the island of Hispaniola when Columbus arrived. Further, this is not to say that no drop of Taino/Arawak blood survived, or than not a single word of the language drifted in later Haitian Creole, perhaps even a zemi god influenced Voodoo here or there.
Rather, the claim is that the Taino/Arawak as a discernible people with a discernible culture simply disappeared ON THE ISLAND OF HISPANIOLA.
It is clear that the Taino/Arawak survived in others areas of the Caribbean, even in near-by Puerto Rico. The claim I am making is limited to those Taino/Arawaks who inhabited the island of Hispaniola when Columbus arrived in 1492.
Disease was a major cause of their demise. However, on Columbus' 2nd voyage he began to require a tribute from the Arawak/Tainos. They were expected to yield a certain quantity of gold per capita. Failing that each adult of 14 was required to submit 25lbs. of cotton. For those who could not produce the cotton either, there was a service requirement for them to work for the Spanish. This set the stage for a system of assigning the Arawak/Taino to Spanish settlers as effective slave labor. This system contributed significantly to their genocide.
In Sidney Lintz's interesting introduction to James Leyburn's THE HAITIANS, he argues that not only did the natives die out, but nearly all cultural traces did too. He says this is a very unusual phenomenon. Haiti's culture is almost entirely African and European. There are some anthropologists who believe that some Voodoo rites, and especially the Petwo Voodoo rites, might have their origins in Arawak/Taino religion, but this is speculative.
Regardless, it does seem that the Arawak/Tainos disappeared without a trace. Michel Laguerre does caution that despite the early date of the demise of the Arawak/Taino, numbers of them did last long enough to have worked alongside the African slaves who were being brought to Haiti in increasing numbers. Laguerre suggests that there would probably have been some inter-mating and thus it is highly unlikely that Indian blood completely died out in Haiti, even though their cultural heritage did disappear without a trace.
[Special note:   Given my focus on the history of Haiti as shaping the current situation in Haiti and using history to understand Haiti today, what is contained in the few paragraphs before this note is very important. It says, in effect, that the pre-Columbian period has virtually no role at all in shaping contemporary Haiti. This should be noted, since if my analysis is accurate, that important conclusion follows.]