很多人认为克里斯多弗•哥伦布 (Christopher Columbus) 征服加勒比地区的行为导致了被称为泰诺人的原住民的种族灭绝。 但是，尽管早期殖民时期带来了巨大破坏，泰诺人还是将他们有关自然和文化世界的知识传给了登岛的欧洲人和非洲人。如今，本土文化和原住民得以生存和繁荣。 史密森尼加勒比土著遗产项目 (CILP) 由史密森尼拉丁裔中心 (Smithsonian Latino Center) 展览与公共项目主管拉纳尔德•伍德曼 (Ranald Woodaman) 和美洲印第安人国立博物馆 (National Museum of the American Indian) 助理研究主任何塞•巴雷罗 (José Barreiro) 共同负责，旨在探索泰诺文化在遭遇第一批欧洲殖民者带来的毁灭性灾难后如何继续发展和繁荣。 加勒比土著遗产项目讲述泰诺人坚持不懈的故事，并协助提供在多民族环境里了解本土遗产的框架。
Through ethnographic fieldwork, workshops, and study of Smithsonian and Caribbean partner collections, the Caribbean Indigenous Legacies Project is revealing how Taíno culture survived and contributed to the survival of the region’s European and African newcomers. The project reveals the regional legacy of ancestral Taíno people and documents the contemporary resurgent interest in Native heritage. Creating a bilingual exhibit that opened at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York, NY in 2018, as well as a companion website and research toolkit, the project seeks to be a resource to those searching for more information about Native heritage in the Caribbean and its diaspora.
