I came a cross a question on GAG about Indian war paint.
It made me wonder about my own Indian heritage The Taino Indians. The post was quite an inspiration. However it was sadly deleted or it glitched on me. Of course it was my luck to find out it was deleted or it glitched after I took a whole day of working on it and I had hit the submit button. Luckily for me I had saved my work. I decided to share my opinion post as a MyTake about my indian Culture based on the inspiration from that particular post regarding war paint..
I must say I knew Indians wore war paint but I never stopped to wonder what the paint may have meant. Her post made me realize how naive I have allowed myself to be in regards to this part of history and of the native lives today. I was left with so many questions.
I realized I never dug into my own background. My family never spoke much about our Taino indian past. I know we have Taino in us but my family were more prone to speak of our “pure” Spaniard routes. Some of my family rather claim they are strictly from Spain but all my life I was told I looked indian. Deep down I knew I was more than Spaninard. It doesn't take a genius to know we are actually a mix of spaniard Taino and the Africans brought over when the Taino slaves began to die from fighting to defend their land, diseases and hard labor due to being enslaved.
I decided to pull up my DNA chart.
My Dna breakdown shows the interesting mix. I was a little off on my numbers when I relayed my DNA to people I spoke with but only by 1% or so.
The post about war paint opened up an awareness for me. I need to know more about my Indian history. I owe it to my children to teach them of their past so we do not lose the culture. It was once attacked by settlers and it keeps being attacked by our naiveness of the past.
So I looked into the Tainos from Puerto Rico. The Tainos are a subgroup of the Arwakan Indians. They called our island Boriken. They lived in caciques (huts) and survived off the land by fishing, hunting and they were very skilled in agriculture. They were very spiritual they prayed to a couple deities or gods. They were polygamist in the sense men and women may have had many spouses. The men and women painted themselves on special occasions. Both wore earrings, nose rings and necklaces. Some were made of gold. That darn gold was one of the reasons the settlers stayed and took over. It is one of the reasons Puerto Rico was named as such. Puerto Rico means Rich Port.
The men usually went naked or wore a cloth somewhat covering their bottom parts like a loin cloth. Unwed women wore headbands and went completely nuded. Married women covered their genitals, with cloth or palm fibers. The length of the Tainos loin cloths distinguished rank.
The Tainos were bronze in color, about average height and size, with dark flowing thick hair and slightly slanted and arched dark eyes.
What do you think? Does my indigenous genes show?
I looked into the Tainos face paint and I found they used minerals to create face paint. They made black yellow and red paint by scraping these minerals against rocks and adding water.
Here is a link showing it being done.
I wanted to give the look a try myself. I cannot say if it is exactly what the Tainos did but I felt it gave me a connection to my past. I had fun trying it and enjoyed the look. It filled me with heritage pride.
I'm not an expert by any means in Taino history or even Puerto Rico's history but this was more of a MyTake on me exploring my past and what I found I hope you enjoyed it.
I want to thank SECRET
the maker of the post who inspired me to look into my past a bit more. Her piece was truly amazing. I am not sure why it was deleted or perhaps it was just a glitch on my end but regardless I think the war paint history post would make for an amazing MyTake. I was so moved I disappeared for more than a day from GAG to research and share my own Native past.
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