The Taínos are Not Extinct: Ancient DNA Recovered from the People who Met Columbus

Genetic testing reveals evidence of a people who were once thought to be extinct

In 1492, Christopher Columbus made his voyage to a new world. However, this world was not new at all—there were already people there. The indigenous people of the Caribbean were the first to meet Christopher Columbus. They were known as the Taínos.

The Taíno people have a relatively unknown history. They are one of several indigenous groups that are referred to as the Arawak people. The Taínos originally inhabited Venezuela, and began voyaging around the Caribbean in 400 BC. At this time, the Taínos lived on the island of Hispaniola—now modern day Haiti and the Dominican Republic. They also had chiefdoms in Jamaica, the Virgin Islands, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. At the height of their civilization, there were an estimated 3 million Taíno people living in Hispaniola alone. 

The Taínos were described as peaceful people. The word Taíno means “noble” or “good.” Columbus himself wrote “They traded with us and gave us everything they had, with good will…they took great delight in pleasing us…They are very gentle and without knowledge of what is evil; nor do they murder or steal…Your highness may believe that in all the world there can be no better people…They love their neighbours as themselves, and they have the sweetest talk in the world, and are gentle and always laughing.” 

However, Columbus was not as kind to the Taínos. When he came to the Americas, Columbus brought diseases like smallpox and measles with him. These diseases wiped out 85% of the Taíno population in a devastatingly short period of time. “By 1519, a third of the aboriginal population had died because of smallpox. You find documents very soon after that, in the 1530s, in which the question came from Spain to the governor. ‘How many Indians are there? Who are the chiefs?’ The answer was none. They are gone.” -Ricardo Alegría, Puerto Rican historian and anthropologist

Disease and slavery had decimated the Taíno population. By the year 1531, there were only an estimated 600 Arawakans left. It had seemed like the Taíno people went extinct.

Fortunately, not all is lost. The recent discovery of an ancient skeleton has helped scientists to discover what happened to the Taíno people. The skeleton was recovered in the Bahamas in 2007 by researcher Hannes Schroeder. Carbon dating revealed that the remains were more than 1,000 years old, dating before the arrival of Columbus. Scientists reported that it was incredibly challenging to run experiments due to the limited amount of DNA they had recovered. Although five burials were excavated, only one had DNA that was intact enough to analyze. This is due to DNA degrading more quickly in hot and humid environments like where the Taínos once lived.

Using genetic testing, Schroeder discovered that the Taíno people are not extinct. In fact, Taíno DNA has been found in modern hispanic people. Between 15-18% of modern Dominicans have Amerindian markers in their DNA. In a separate study conducted at the University of Puerto Rico, 61% of participants had native DNA, 26% had African markers, and 12% had European markers. These studies found that the Taíno people are not extinct, they are mixed into the culture of their descendants.

Thanks to genetic testing, scientists have managed to fill a gap in the history of the Americas. This discovery is one of many that resulted from the ancient DNA boom that involved new advances in the extraction and preservation of DNA as well as the technology used to analyze it. Next generation sequencing (NGS) was introduced in the late 2000s and was used to sequence the first ancient DNA genome in 2010. Because of this technology, there are now thousands of ancient genomes that have been sequenced. 

NGS works by fragmenting DNA into pieces then adding adapter sequences to those pieces. These adaptors allow the DNA to bind to matching adaptors on the surface of a flow cell where PCR is used to make copies of each piece of DNA. Then, sequencing can begin. Fluorescently-tagged nucleotides will bind to the single-stranded DNA one base at a time. Each nucleotide has a distinct color which is read out as it binds to the DNA. The sequence of colors can then be used to determine the sequence of the DNA. This process is repeated 100-200 times to read the entire sequence of the DNA. The major benefit of NGS over other methods, like Sanger sequencing, is that Sanger sequencing can only analyze one fragment at a time. NGS can process millions of fragments simultaneously, allowing scientists to study the genome in its entirety. NGS is an overall lower cost and more efficient procedure that has been invaluable to geneticists and archaeologists alike.

Their Culture Lives On

Even before genetic ancestry testing became widely available, hispanic people celebrated their indigenous roots. They maintain the connection to their native ancestors by incorporating native culture and traditions into their daily lives. Descendants of Taíno people express their heritage by wearing Taíno symbols like the sun god or the coquí frog. Taíno culture is also present in modern language. For example, many words are derived from Taíno language such as hammock (hamaka), canoe (canoa), barbeque (barbacoa), hurricane (hurakán), and tobacco (tabaco) to name a few. 

Genetic testing has revealed that the Taíno people are not extinct, they are mixed into modern hispanic people.

“You know what? These people didn’t disappear. In fact, they’re still here. They’re in us.”

– Maria Nieves-Colón, geneticist at the National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity in Irapuato, Mexico, and Arizona State University.

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