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(Opposite) Christopher Columbus and his crew claim San Salvador for Spain, October 12, 1492. Columbus believed the Bahamas were part of an archipelago that lay north of Japan. (Right) Perry Christie, prime minister of the Bahamas, speaks at a United Nations summit on climate change in September 2014. 2

Pirate’s Paradise

RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE suggests that the Bahamas may have been settled as early as the fourth century A . D . But little is known about these earliest native inhabitants. In the 9th or 10th century, a group of Arawak Indians known as the Lucayans arrived. The word Lucayans comes from the native term lukku-caire , which means “island people.” These peaceful people may have traveled to the Bahamas in order to avoid conflicts with the Caribs, a cannibalistic tribe that was growing more and more dominant in South America as well as in many areas of the Caribbean. The Lucayans lived in villages that were organized into clans . Each clan had a chief ( cacique ). The Lucayans ate fish and shellfish. They planted and harvested vegetables such as corn and yams, and they used a starchy plant

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