Invaders nearly wiped out Caribbean’s first people long before Spanish came, DNA reveals

Caribbean traders approach an island in the Bahamas, part of an ancient exchange network that knit the islands together before the arrival of the Spanish.

Painting by Merald Clark, Stone Interchanges in the Bahama Archipelago

Johannes Krause, director of the William Keegan, an archaeologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History and a co-author of the Nature study. “They apparently lived unmolested and with little mixing.”

Provocative discovery

One of the most provocative findings of the Harvard study is that the indigenous populations of large islands like Puerto Rico and Hispaniola were far smaller at the time of the Spanish arrival than Spanish records suggested.

A decade after Columbus arrived, a Spanish friar estimated that there were as many as 3.5 million people on Hispaniola, today’s Haiti and Dominican Republic. But extrapolations from the genetic data, based on new mathematical models, point to only tens of thousands of inhabitants. That calls into question the old assumption that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of indigenous people died from disease and other impacts of the European invasion.

A skeleton curled up and buried in the sand — The Harvard study was based on DNA recovered from the skeletal remains of 174 individuals, including this Lucayan woman who lived in the Bahamas in the 1300s. The Lucayan people practiced cranial flattening, as indicated by the shape of her skull.

Photograph courtesy William F. Keegan, Florida Museum

“This new approach of estimating past population sizes has the potential to revolutionize our view of past migration and cultural changes,” said Krause.

While large numbers of indigenous people died after the arrival of the Spanish, genetic studies show that their DNA survives in modern-day islanders, mixed with genes from later European colonizers and enslaved Africans.

Many indigenous groups have alleged that geneticists—often white Europeans and Americans—don’t consult with them, or show proper respect for their traditions, while investigating their origins. In this case, however, the Nature authors said they collaborated with descendant communities as well as local Caribbean scholars in gathering and analyzing their data. The research was supported in part by a grant from the National Geographic Society.

Making connections

One mystery yet to be resolved is how relatively small island populations avoided inbreeding over so many centuries. There is no sign of any subsequent major migrations from the mainland. But archaeologists say the new evidence points to extensive island-to-island contacts that likely helped ensure genetic diversity.

Two people dig into the side of a sand bank — Archaeologist Michael Pateman and local resident Anthony Maillis begin excavating a dune on Long Island in the Bahamas. A 2015 hurricane eroded the dune and exposed human bones, which Maillis and his companions spotted and reported to authorities. The dune contained three ancient burials, included the Lucayan woman (previous photo).

Photograph courtesy William F. Keegan, Florida Museum

The research published in Nature “highlighted the connectivity of peoples in the region,” said search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke for National Geographic.