Arawak

Arawak (ä`räwäk), linguistic stock of indigenous people who came from South America and, at the time of the Spanish Conquest, occupied the islands of the Greater Antilles, the Bahamas, Trinidad, and other areas of Amazonia. Before the arrival of the Spanish they were driven from the Lesser Antilles by the Carib. Most of the Arawak of the Antilles died out after the Spanish conquest. In South America, Arawakan-speaking groups are widespread, from SW Brazil to Colombia and Venezuela, representing a wide range of cultures. They are found mostly in the tropical forest areas N of the Amazon. As with all Amazonian native peoples, contact with white settlement has led to culture change and depopulation among these groups.

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Arawak

American Indians of the Greater Antilles and South America. The Taino, an Arawak subgroup, were the first native peoples encountered by Christopher Columbus on Hispaniola. The island Arawak were wiped out by disease, but some mainland South American Arawak, who inhabited northern and western areas of the Amazon River basin, survived conquest. At the turn of the 21st century, the Arawak lived mainly in Guyana, where they represented about one-third of the Indian population. Smaller numbers live in Suriname, French Guiana, and Venezuela.