The last Caribbeans
Dominica is the home of the last Caribbean Indians. Northeast of the island, along the wild Atlantic coast, between bananas and coconut trees, is Carib Territory, a reserve created in 1903 by Hesketh Bell, a British Governor, that thought this was the only way to grant the Indians their survival. It’s been a very long time, since the Caribbeans ceased to be those fiery Indians, warriors and cannibals that terrorized the first Europeans that arrived to the Antilles. They are currently dedicated to carve wood, and elaborate precious basket works. Along the road going parallel to the coast, you’ll find some of their huts, built with junk roofs, and handicraft stands.

South of the Indian reserve, is L’Escalier-Tête-Chien (the serpent stair), a formation of hardened lava that goes down to the ocean.

Though modernity has reached the lives of the richest people in Guadeloupe, who have Internet at their homes, go abroad, and watch the latest American series by TV; the east coast of Dominica is still a traditional place, where electricity arrived as recently as the mid 1980’s. Far from the rush of modern life, life goes on peacefully, in communities like Petit Savanne, a town southeast of the island, with houses surrounded with fragrant laurels. Social life, in places like this, is centered on the church, the school and the town’s shop. Meanwhile, the house’s courtyards, where green bananas hang, and are also use as warehouses of provisions like the name or the taro, are the places where families get together to talk or have fun.

THE CARIBBEAN INDIANS
At the beginning of the XV century, the first Europeans met, face-to-face, with the Caribbean Indians, living on the Eastern Caribbean islands for hundreds of years, there was no exchange of gifts between them. Hundreds of years before, Amerindians made the long journey from South America to these islands, using boats of up to 23m. of length, built with the trunks of huge trees like the gommier, and with a capacity of up to 50 people. For years, the Caribbeans had ferocious fights against the Arawaks, the ancient inhabitants, before expelling them out of the islands. So, the Caribbeans had no intention of giving up their territory easily, to the new invaders.

When Christopher Columbus arrived to the Bahamas in 1493, most of the Indians (as he called them, thinking he had arrive to the India) he met were kind with his men, and offered them food and water. Columbus’ first thought was they were shy and pacific people. He wrote in his diary: ”They could be good and intelligent servants, because I have watched that they quickly understand what they are told”. As proof, he converted them in slaves, to help Spain in the search for gold.

At once, stories about them started, by which these “wild pagans”, of almond-shape eyes, protruding cheek bones, copper colored and dark, flaccid hair, used to roast and eat their prisoners. Historians affirm that this black legend was really an offensive tale, created by the Spaniards. However, it seems certain that some rituals included cannibal practices, like eating the heart of a brave enemy, or the one from a dearest chief, thinking that their courage or kindness could be passed through to them.

The only way they found to fight against the cruelty of the Spaniards was to hide in the impenetrable wooded mountains of Dominica, from where they could launch attacks against other islands like Antigua & Barbuda. During the XVII century, they also lived in Santa Lucia and Grenada. European colonists arriving to these islands were received with an overwhelming rain of poisoned arrows. The poison was extracted from the chamomile tree. Afterwards, the weapons and, specially, the diseases the Europeans brought from Europe, ended with a vast majority of the Caribbeans in these islands. Some escaped then to Dominica, where still is a small reserve, in which the last descendants of these Indian warriors live.

The Caribbeans painted their bodies with red, and used feathers and collars made of stones, bones and teeth. The chiefs used crowns, and adorned their bodies with golden jewels. They established a commercial network, extending along thousands of kilometers between the islands and South America. They seeded manioc, corn, kidney beans, pumpkins and red peppers, besides tobacco, cotton (for hammocks), and bija (to make the red paste to paint the bodies). Men were dedicated to fishing, hunting and collecting mollusk shells, crabs and turtle eggs; while the women were in charge of agriculture and cooking for the tribe.

The first Europeans that wrote about their trips to these islands, described a utopian, even society, with no rich or poor people.