The Lucayans were descendants of the Arawaks of South America, who made their way through the Caribbean chain aboard dugout canoes. The Arawaks left South America in their quest for peace away from the war-faring Caribs, who were also from South America.
By the time the Italian explorer, Christopher Columbus, made his first landfall in the Americas on 12 October 1492, the Arawaks had settled the larger Caribbean islands of Puerto Rico, Hispaniola (the island of Haiti and Dominican Republic), Cuba and Jamaica where they became known as Tainos.
A branch of the Taino-Arawaks had also settled the islands further to the north now known as, The Bahamas and The Turks and Caicos Islands. Here, they called themselves, Lukku Cairi, meaning Island People. (Today, they are referred to as Lucayans). The Lucayans were the first in recorded history to have inhabited The Bahamas and The Turks and Caicos Islands.
It was here among these islands where Columbus made his historic landfall in the Americas on a tiny island he renamed, San Salvador, meaning Holy Savior. San Salvador is located in the central Bahamas.
Columbus’ historic landfall ushered in a new era that gave birth to the unfolding of the modern Americas. Not long after his arrival, Columbus sailed south for the northern Caribbean islands taking several Lucayans with him; the explorer never returned to the Bahama chain of islands.
Later, Spanish explorers from nearby Hispaniola came and took the remaining Lucayans away to work as slaves in the goldmines of Hispaniola and Cuba where they all died. At the dawning of The modern Americas, the Lucayans were the first to suffer complete genocide.
The storied past of the Lucayan Sea is an aquatic monument to the Lucayan plight and legacy, and to humanity’s continued quest to discover peace and rest.
