Ciguayos
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The Ciguayos (Spanish: Ciguayos) were a group of indigenous people who inhabited the
Samaná Peninsula The Samaná Península is a peninsula in Dominican Republic situated in the province of Samaná. The Samaná Peninsula is connected to the rest of the state by the isthmus of Samaná; to its south is Samaná Bay. The peninsula contains many beache ...
and its adjoining regions in the present-day
Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...
. The Ciguayos appear to have predated the agricultural
Taíno The Taíno were a historic indigenous people of the Caribbean whose culture has been continued today by Taíno descendant communities and Taíno revivalist communities. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the pri ...
who inhabited much of the island. Ciguayo was spoken on the northeastern coast of the
Magua Magua is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the 1826 novel ''The Last of the Mohicans'' by James Fenimore Cooper. This historical novel is set at the time of the French and Indian War. A Huron Indian chief, he is also known by the F ...
region from
Nagua Nagua is the capital of María Trinidad Sánchez province, in the northeastern Dominican Republic. A medium-sized town, Nagua's economy relies on the production of agricultural products, principally rice, coconuts, and cocoa bean. Located on t ...
southward to at least the
Yuna River The Yuna River (Spanish: ''Río Yuna'') is the second longest river in the Dominican Republic at in length. It forms within the Cordillera Central mountain range southwest of the city of Bonao in Monseñor Nouel Province, and passes through the ...
, and throughout all of the Samana Peninsula. Since the moment of contact early Spanish writers perceived them as a threat and portrayed them flaunting long hair and brandishing bows with poisoned arrows. Their archery tradition, however, is linked to the Kalinago, or Island Caribs. Their legacy has spawned folktales, and since the 19th century, their memory has been at the center of the Dominican indigenist movement.


Origins

They were considered a separate ethnic people that inhabited the Peninsula of Samaná and part of the northern coast toward
Nagua Nagua is the capital of María Trinidad Sánchez province, in the northeastern Dominican Republic. A medium-sized town, Nagua's economy relies on the production of agricultural products, principally rice, coconuts, and cocoa bean. Located on t ...
in what today is the Dominican Republic, and, by most contemporary accounts, differed in language and customs from the classical Taíno who lived on the eastern part of the island of Hispaniola then known. The ciguayos were physically distinguished from the Taínos because they were taller, they painted their bodies with black dye and allowed their hair to grow, which they adorned with feathers, to the entire length, according to
Bartolomé de las Casas Bartolomé de las Casas, OP ( ; ; 11 November 1484 – 18 July 1566) was a 16th-century Spanish landowner, friar, priest, and bishop, famed as a historian and social reformer. He arrived in Hispaniola as a layman then became a Dominican friar ...
. Also in the expression of the countenance the ciguayos were more severe than the taínos. Their bows were larger and their arrows had poison at the tip. They spoke another language that was not the common one of most of the island. At the end of the 15th century the ciguayos occupied the Macorís de Arriba, mountain ranges of the today Cordillera Septentrional that were then called Ciguay, their ruler was Mayobanex. According to Eustaquio Fernandez de Navarrete, they were “warriors and spirited people,” (“gente animosa y guerrera”). Fray Ramón Pané, often dubbed as the first anthropologist of the Caribbean, distinguished the Cigüayos’ language from the rest of those spoken on Hispaniola. Bartolomé de las Casas, who studied them and was one of the few who read Ramón Pané’s original work in Spanish, provided most of the documentation about this group. Linguists Granberry and Gary Vescelius believe that the Cigüayos emigrated from Meso-America. Wilson (1990) states that circa 1500 this was the kingdom
Cacicazgo ''Cacicazgo'' is a phonetic Spanish transliteration (or a derivative) of the Taíno word for the lands ruled by a '' cacique''. The Spanish colonial system recognized indigenous elites as nobles in Mexico and Peru, and other areas. Nobles could e ...
of Cacique Guacangarí. The Cronista de Indias, Pedro Martir accused them of cannibalism: “when they descend from the mountains to wage war on their neighbors, they kill and eat some of them” (“trae origen de los caníbales, pues cuando de las montañas bajan a lo llano para hacer guerra á sus vecinos, si matan á algunos se los comen”).


References

{{Ancestry and ethnicity in Dominican Republic Ethnic groups in the Dominican Republic Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean