First settlers of the island of Santo Domingo

The first settlers of the island of Santo Domingo belonged to native people groups from the Orinoco river basin in Venezuela, as well as the Xingú and Tapajos basins in the Guyanas.  They established themselves over four large waves of migration:

• First migration wave: siboneyes, peoples with a shell culture that lived on the shores of rivers, swamps, inlets and bays.  They did not have pottery nor agriculture.  They occupied some parts of the island.  Second migration wave: Known as Igneris on an archaeological level, they were of Arawak origin.  They developed pottery.

•  Third migration wave: product of the great Arawak expansion.  Starting with this third population group, a cultural development independent of continental aboriginal traditions begins to develop, forming the Taino culture.

•  Fourth migration wave: Caribs, also from the Arawak family, but with particular characteristics.  They were great navigators, well-versed in the use of the bow and arrow, and cannibals.  They constantly made incursions into the eastern part of the island, besieging the Taino settlers.  They mixed with the Tainos, forming the Ciguayo culture, located in the regions today known as Samaná, Río San Juan, Cabrera and Nagua.
  Around the end of the 15th century, the Tainos ruled almost the entire island.