Lokono (Arawak) farming and canoe-trading people of the Guyana coast and river valleys — the people whose name gave 'Arawak' to the whole language family — with communities today along the Pomeroon, Essequibo, Demerara-Mahaica and Berbice rivers.
First touched by Columbus in 1498 and the early pearl and slave trade, then ground down by encomienda and mission after Cumaná (1515) and Caracas (1567); resistance under chiefs like Guaicaipuro broke by the 1570s, yet Kalina and other peoples endure across Venezuela and the Guianas today.
Documents the early pearl-coast and slave trade that ground down the coastal Carib and Arawak peoples of Venezuela.
Survey reference covering the Carib (Kalina) and Arawak (Lokono) peoples of the Caribbean coast and Orinoco (broad reference).