Mélange Travel & Lifestyle Magazine October 2018 | Page 302

The Dominican Republic’s Taino History © Dominican Republic Ministry of Tourism Before the arrival of Christopher Columbus and the Spanish, the first inhabitants of the Dominican Republic were the friendly and peaceful indigenous Taino-Arawak Indians. They lived in thatch houses, fished and lived off the produce from their agricultural land. Today, you can see signs of their existence on pictographs and petroglyphs located in caverns in Samaná, Bayahibe, San Cristóbal, and Enriquillo.