The Ciguayos (Spanish: Ciguayos) were a group of indigenous people who inhabited the Samaná Peninsula 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

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, 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

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. 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 pe