American History - Caribbean History?

[!<3 2 @ct! hug~a~tree]

I'm from the Caribbean and we graduate high School at 16 so I came here and went to college and learned the differences in the history taught.Like people are amazed that Jamaica or countries like Trinidad are inhabited by Asians or Indians. HELLO they were tried as slaves before they decided to use blacks!!!Most Hispanics do not see a connection to Carib Indians/Awaraks and their people.Noone knows who Carib Indians or Awaraks are.Am I wrong? Or do they teach this in earlier education?I'm from St. Vincent! =)MajYou almost made me cry lol The Caribs are still here. I'm black and Carib Indian and my Granmothers side of the family is pure Carib.

 

[philldog2001]

In the United States the history or demographics of the Caribbean islands are not taught in schools.

 

[tee2]

i KNOW!!! im form trinidad and people see me ad they think im just indian and then i tell them no im also arabic,chinese and dutch. and there like but u dont look like it, and i have to explain to thm thw whole concept of how like my grandparent were indentured like chinese and indian, thn how my great grandfather was a dutch merchant and wud sail over. Yea and no1 knows about arawaks and their a major role in american history, i mean christopher columbus had killed a lot of thm and americans always praise columbus. By the way which carribean country u from? i cant wait for carnival, im going in february. lolyea my mom is like tht wen were here and we make our familu who lives there send us like all the little treats and music and my mom always crys wen she hears parang around christmas... lol

 

[!C3M@n]

I'm American, I don't think I ever heard of the Caribs or Arawak until I got interested in reggae music in the 1980s.The first mention of the Arawak I can recall was in the song "Christopher Columbus" by Burning Spear. I was in grade school in the 60s; there was very little mention of Caribbean history in school that I can remember. Most of what we learned about it concerned English pirates who gave a lot of trouble to the Spanish in that region. Oddly, some Americans seem to think the black people from the West Indies have always lived there and did not come from Africa.By the way, my wife is from India. She has cousins who own duty free shops in Jamaica and the Virgin Islands. Her family didn't come from the original Indians in the West Indies, though. I noticed that there are other Indians and Chinese who have been in Jamaica for hundreds of years. My understanding is that the Arawak and Carib people have essentially died out, but some Jamaicans do have ancestry of the original people of the area.