Times of the Islands Summer 2022

talking taíno
Opposite page: Advances in ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis have given scientists new tools for investigating Lucayan ancestry.
Above: This original painting represents the fact that female Tanío Caciques traced their ancestors through the female line to a common
ancestress. Artist Theodore Morris earned a BFA from the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida. After decades of studying and painting
Florida’s pre-Columbian Indians, he decided to investigate the Tanío and discovered they both had a lot in common. To see a selection of his
artwork, visit taino-paintings.weebly.com.
THEODORE MORRIS
Lucayan Ancestry.edu
Exploring the origins and interactions of the
ancient Lucayans with ancient DNA.
By Kendra Sirak, Bill Keegan, Betsy Carlson, and Michael Pateman
About ten years ago, Tellis Bethel, retired commodore of the Bahamas Defense Force, started a campaign
to name the waters surrounding The Bahamas and Turks & Caicos Islands (TCI) the “Lucayan Sea.”
Covering 180,000 square miles of the southern North Atlantic Ocean, this is the largest recognized but
unnamed body of water in the world. Commodore Bethel felt compelled to recognize the pivotal role of
the Indigenous inhabitants of these islands — known as “Lucayans” — in the history of the Americas. First
and foremost, they discovered and rescued a lost Italian explorer by the name of Christopher Columbus
(certainly not the other way around). And as we know, they were the first to suffer the severe consequences
of this encounter.
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