User:JoeNathan94/Indigenous peoples of Guyana

History

Guyana’s nation was inhabited by Amerindians, native people who entered the territory eleven thousand years ago. These inhabitants were the first form of civilization in the only country in Latin America that speaks English. Europe played a prevalent part in the history of Guyana. The Dutch were the first non-Indian people to colonize this vast nation in the sixteenth century. In 1579, the European regions of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, and Zutpen, formerly ruled by Spain, joined forces to form the Union of Utrecht. In the years that followed, the Indians were used for their efforts to further prosper the Dutch. Without making Guyana a primary trading partner, the Europeans would not have the know-how to find the proper resources to survive, as fur was an element of the material culture in Europe. Guyana, like other parts of Latin America, experienced the side effects of the colonization of this country. European diseases and the development of the Indian slave trade cost the numbers of the indigenous communities to decline, as a result, caused them to split into separate factions of Guyana.

Pre-Colonial Guyana

This village was first colonized by the Dutch in the 1600’s. If not, the Spanish explorers would have claimed this land as their own. However, these travelers were searching for mineral wealth, and Guyana lacked enough wealth for these people to acquire. Much to their dismay, the Spanish gave up an opportunity of owning one-hundred-hectare tracts of land. Instead, the British and the Dutch settlers were granted the property rights of this land. The lands were actively utilized by clearing swampland and expanding their land holdings. From the Europeans’ perspective, this was a great land gain, except the indigenous people, were manipulated by European greed. Dutch settlers began to establish drainage basins in Guyana’s coastal plains, using techniques they gathered in the Netherlands. These techniques continued to be deployed until the 1990s. Sugar was the primary crop. It was grown in colonial Guyana in 1658 but was not mass-produced until the late 1700s. Some of the plantation owners entered the business late and obtained advanced equipment for milling sugarcane. Guyana’s genetic makeup was compromised of African slaves due to the lack of workers to work in the sugar fields. Slaves from West Africa were imported, and by the year 1830 one hundred thousand slaves were in the colony. At the time, the indigenous community became such a minority that they mostly lived in the interior of Guyana.

Colonial Rule

Although the colony was established by the Dutch, Great Britain took over the colony in 1814. At the time, the land was called British Guiana. Thanks to the colonization of Britain, the economy was in turmoil. The Act to Abolish Slavery Throughout The British Colonies was passed. From the outset, the colony was moving forward to stop the spread of indentured servitude. The act began to pay soon-to-be-freed slaves for their services. This was carried out for five years. Slave owners forced the slaves to work past their natural abilities. After slavery was abolished in 1838, former plantation owners abandoned their farms, and as a result, agricultural production fell to a monumental low. Some groups of former slaves could buy failed plantations, but they lacked the necessary revenue to reconstruct the land from its former shape to a prosperous new plantation. Most resulted in subsistence farming. By 1848, Guyana’s population was compromised of forty percent of Africans, the remaining population was compromised of Indians from India that was imported to the land to help with the land crisis.

Independence

In the early 1950s, the country began trekking on the road to a national movement and was known as the original People’s Progressive Party, under the siege of the former presidents Dr. Cheddi B. Jagan and Mr. Forbes Burnham. These past presidents received praise from the working-class population. The people gained their political independence on May 26, 1966. Four years before, the UK held conferences in which they decided the fate of the people, a free or an enslaved nation from Great Britain. Thanks to the finalization of the new government, independence arrangements were made to grant the country the rights to an autonomous control. Following the decision for Guyana to be an independent nation, it became the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, a name that was used for many years to come. However, the balance of power remained in question. The People’s National Congress, dominated, and became the law of the land, causing the indigenous people to feel disgruntled towards the government.

Indigenous Groups

Due to disease and conflict that did not resolve itself, Amerindian tribes decided to separate and form the primary tribes the Caribs, the Akawois, the Arawaks, and the Warrous. These tribes resided in scattered villages in the vast hinterland, which covered over ninety percent of Guyana. Other geographical locations in which the indigenous people lived were coastal swamps, the lowland, and mountainous regions. Guyana started with nine aboriginal groups spread across the land. The original inhabitants lived in the coastal regions and rain forests. This was the area encompassing the northernmost part of South America. This was an effective trade route that stretched into the Caribbean Sea. The Arawak-Taino, also known as the Lokono group spoke one of the first languages spoken by the people, Taino. It was also spoken in the Caribbean basin circumscribing as far north as current Florida. These cultures were the most accommodating for the nomads. The next indigenous group in Guyana was the Kalihna, once known as the Carib-Galibios. The Kalihna group, unlike their neighbors the Arawak-Tainos, this group earned a reputation of being aggressive and warlike people. Of all the indigenous people the Europeans encountered, the Kalihna-Caribs were the most plentiful and powerful race, compared to other indigenous families. Having experienced ill-treatment by the Spanish and European explorers, the Guarao or Waraus built boats to migrate to the Orinoco region to the swamps of the Barima River in Guyana. The Guarao remained in this territory after the British took control. Under the British colonial government, the Guarao people were encouraged to work on the estates and the sugar plantations. The population of the Kalihna group on the coastal part of Guyana declined tremendously, however, the Lokono and the Guarao communities are now the largest indigenous groups in the country. The largest indigenous groups are known as the interior groups. They comprise of the Akawaio, the Arekuna, Patamona, Waiwai, Macusi, and Wapishana. All the interior Amerindians originally spoke Carib languages, except the Wapishana, they spoke the same language as the Arawak-Taino tribe. The Arekuna were late drifters that came from the Rio Branco region of Brazil and drifted into the northern part of Rupununi savannahs in Guyana. The last two tribes found in the indigenous communities of Guyana are Waiwai and the Patamona. The Waiwai group were the latest newcomers to the Guyana Acarai Mountains in 1837. This group moved to the far south part of the country, in the lowland forest area of the interior near the headwaters of the Essequibo River. The last indigenous community found in Guyana that currently resides in Guyana is the Patamona tribe. These people dwell in the mountainous region in Guyana. Known for having the smallest number of people in all of Guyana, they are thought to have lived in in the Pakaraima Mountain ranges. Formerly, there were nine indigenous communities, and there continues to be nine indigenous communities.

Current Problems

Over the years, Guyana faced issues that arose in the years preceding independence, and following new governmental rule over the country. Today, the indigenous people lack a voice an in their community. The standard of living continues to be lower than much of the country. Many the Amerindians are classified as being impoverished. Women are at a higher risk of manipulation than men, because they are being lured into mining and lumber camps with the promise of employment, and forced into prostitution. There is an act called the National Plan of Action in place to fight human trafficking. Except, most of this activity occurs in the hinterland where there is little to no government supervision to stop the spread of forced prostitution. Indigenous groups are declining due to a swarm of people coming from the coast. Access to a proper education for indigenous people is short, but indigenous children have state-regulated schools. Each community has primary schools, and eight secondary schools in the hinterland. However, there is a lack of trained teachers in the area. As a result, the teachers are unaware of the traditions of the indigenous groups, and the indigenous values and traditions are vastly underrepresented. Other current problems the indigenous communities face is a lack of healthcare for its people, and dismissal of land ownership that properly belongs to the Amerindians.