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Who were the Lucayan people of The Bahamas?

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Flag of The Bahamas — The Bahamas The flag of The Bahamas was officially hoisted on July 10, 1973, the date of the nation's independence from the United Kingdom.

The Lucayan people were a peaceful Arawakan-speaking group of Taino origin who settled the Bahama archipelago from Hispaniola by 800 CE. They were the original inhabitants of the islands at the time of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in 1492.123

The Lucayans are remembered for their tragic history following European contact. Although the Spanish did not establish permanent settlements in the Bahamas, they conducted raids between 1492 and 1508, forcibly removing approximately 40,000 Lucayans to labor in the mines of Hispaniola. This exploitation led to the depopulation of the islands for more than a century.2

Evidence of their presence, including pottery shards and figurines, has been discovered on islands such as Samana Cay, which some scholars identify as a potential site of Columbus’s first landfall. The name of the country itself is believed by many to be of Lucayan Taino derivation.321