Long before the arrival of the discoverer Christopher Columbus in 1493, the island was inhabited by the proud Carib Indians. They lived a quiet life based on subsistence farming and fishing. When the Europeans came, the Caribs spent many years and lost many lives protecting their island home they called “Wiatukubuli” which means “tall is her body.”

Today, the approximately 3,000 descendents of the original Caribs live on the 3,700-acre areas of land given to them on the eastern coast of the island. This land is made up of about eight villages which together are called the Carib Territory. These descendents have fused a culture of the past and the present into something both wholesome and original.

They have maintained the farming, fishing and craft traditions of their ancestors while they have adapted to the challenges of modern life.  

 

Dominicans are some of the most friendly people in the Caribbean region. Apart from the Caribs, the island is largely inhabited by the descendents of West Africans, who were brought to the island to work as slaves. There are still some families who are descendents of British families who lived on the island during colonial days. In addition, there are descendents of Lebanese and Syrian families who came to work on the island as indentured labourers once slaves were emancipated in the 1830s.