Amerindians Discovery After 1800 After 1939
Politics Economy

The Amerianians

The earliest known inhabitants of Union Island were the Ciboney Indians, who arrived around 5000 BC. They lived in caves and ate fish and seashells. They were followed by the Arawaks. Soon, the Arawak people were then pushed northwards up the chain of Caribbean islands by a race of people coming from the Amazon Basin, the Caribs.

The Arawaks and Caribs were collectively called the Amerindians. They both came to Union Island and the rest of Grenadines’s islands traveling in fifty-foot dugout canoes, carrying with them fire-burners, animals and plants. From the south, the tribes first settled on Chatham Bay, and from the north they settled at Miss Pierre.

Union Island was chosen as a religious centre by the Arawaks who were a very peaceful tribe. The Caribs, more aggressive, conquered and killed their men and carried off their woman. Even though the Amerindians lived close to the coast land, they grew plants in the rainy season, and store them for the dry season. The cassava, corn and fruit were cultivated by these early settlers. They receive their protein through hunting wood pigeons, manicous, iguanas, etc. The sap of the manchineel tree made their arrows for the hunt poisonous and deadly

Columbus and the Spanish voyagers came after and made the Arawaks their slaves. However, the Spanish had no intention in colonizing Union Island or any other nearby island. They came to exploit minerals and wealth. St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada was the final stronghold of the Caribs Nation and thus the last settled by the Europeans.