The Haitian Times
www.haitiantimes.com
By SAM BOJARSKI
In the United States, the influence of Indigenous peoples live on in a number of traditions, the most well-known being Thanksgiving. The 400-year-old tradition honors the Indigenous Wampanoag’s feast with the English pilgrims. It is also an opportunity to look at the impact of Indigenous people elsewhere, like the Taino that inhabited present-day Haiti.
The Taino, native inhabitants of the Caribbean have impacted Haiti’s religion, music, language and celebrations, among other cultural elements, experts and linguists say.
Although the Taino population was largely decimated by the mid-1500s, according to historians, their influence can be seen in the Vodou religion and in Haitian Creole vocabulary, the most notable example being Ayiti, or “land of mountains,” the word from which the name of the country Haiti is derived.
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