The First Highways · Episode 11 of 12 · 24 min
Blue-Water Nations: Taino Seaways and the Northern Canoe
Seafaring was never a European monopoly. The Caribbean was settled in deliberate migration waves, the Taino crossed it in ocean-going dugouts that gave English the word canoe, and the north had its own blue-water traditions in Pacific Northwest cedar whaling canoes and the Chumash tomol. Colonial figures for canoe size are flagged as likely inflated.
Who's who
- William F. Keeganco-author of The Caribbean Before Columbus
- Corinne L. Hofmanco-author of The Caribbean Before Columbus
- Scott M. Fitzpatrickarchaeologist of Caribbean and Pacific seafaring and colonization
- Christopher Columbus+1 more episode1492 landfall in the Bahamas; described Taino canoes
- Bartolome de las Casaschronicler describing Cuban and Hispaniolan canoes
Where it happens
- Greater Antilleshomeland of the Taino across Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico
- Lucayan Bahamasnorthern edge of the Taino seaway
- Mona Passage, Caribbeanstrait crossed by canoe voyages
- Santa Barbara Channel, Californiahome of the Chumash tomol
- Vancouver Island, British Columbiahome of Nuu-chah-nulth whaling canoes
Timeline
- c. 6,000 years agoArchaic settlers reach Cuba and Hispaniola by sea
- c. 500 BCESaladoid expansion begins from the lower Orinoco
- c. 650 CEdocumented antiquity of the Chumash tomol tradition
- c. 1200 CEclassic Taino culture crystallizes
- 1492Columbus lands in the Bahamas and describes large canoes
Still debated
The number, timing, and staging of Caribbean migration waves are actively debated, as is what happened to Archaic islanders. Genetic data point toward large-scale replacement in the Greater Antilles. Largest-canoe capacities rest on colonial chroniclers.
← PreviousTwo Thousand Years Deep: Hopewell and Poverty PointNext →Meeting in the Middle of the Ocean, and What the Myth Cost
