Caquetios Indian
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Caiquetios Indian was a tribe of the Arawak Indians which lived in Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire and were descendants from the Caiquetios who lived in the Venezuelan states of Loara and Falcon. When the Spanish arrived in Aruba around 1500 they found the Caiquetios in Aruba, living much as they did in the Stone Age. These Indians had probably migrated to Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire in canoes made from hollowed out logs they used for fishing. Such crossings from the Paraguana peninsula in Venezuela, across the 17 miles of open sea to Aruba, would be possible in the canoes the Caiquetios of Venezuela built. In 1513, the Spanish abandoned the island of Aruba and took all the Indian population to Santo Domingo to work in the sugar cane fields. During this period of abandonment other inhabitants from Venezuela again arrived and started to re-populate the island. In 1527 the Spanish brought back some of the original Indians they had taken to Santo Domingo and these returning inhabitants settled in what is now Sabaneta. The Dutch record that the last true Indian died in Aruba around 1862, however, even today, the Indian features remains in the faces of many of the native Arubans.
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