Taino Indians in Cuba
The Taino people were of Arawak decent, one of the major indigenous peoples of the Caribbean prior to the arrival of the conquistadores. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola now called Haiti and the Dominican Republic and also Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles, the northern Lesser Antilles, and the Bahamas, where they were known as the Lucayans. They spoke the Taino language, itself being dialects of one of the Arawakan languages.