Kalinago Carib Elect New Chief in Dominica

Waitukubuli/Dominica (UCTP Taino News) - Elections were held in July in the Carib territory of Dominica, West Indies to choose a Chief for a new 5-year term of office. Former Chief Garnet Joseph won the election over incumbent Charles Williams.

Joseph said his work focus will include health, education and respect for council members in the Territory. The new chief has also pledged to bring more development to the 3,800-acre (1,538-hectare) territory, where Caribs live in greater poverty than the rest of the country. Dominica is home to about 3,000 Caribs, or ethnic Kalinagos.

UCTPTN 08.07.2009

Fifth Summit of the Americas to take place in Trinidad & Tobago 2009

UCTP Taino News - In 2009, Trinidad and Tobago will be the first Caribbean, Small Island Developing State to host the Fifth Summit of the Americas. The Summits of the Americas are held every three to four years and bring together the 34 democratically elected Heads of State and Government in the Western Hemisphere to exchange ideas and opinions on the political, economic, social, and security challenges confronting the region.

From 1994, the Summits process has seen the implementation of several initiatives advancing improvements in healthcare, education, infrastructure and security, disaster mitigation and preparedness, environmental conservation, and democratic governance across the hemisphere - all for the benefit of the people of the Americas.

According to the Summit Secretariat “The goal of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago in preparing for the Fifth Summit is to ensure that the focus remains on people - that it brings meaningful and tangible benefits to all the people of the Americas.”

Plans are already being discussed to host an “Indigenous Summit of the Americas” in conjunction with the Fifth Summit.

UCTPTN 05.15.2008

Dominica rejects legislating intermarriage to save tribe

ROSEAU, Dominica (AP) - The leader of the last remaining pre-Columbian tribe in the eastern Caribbean says outlawing marriage to outsiders can save Dominica's dwindling indigenous population, but legislators are balking at deciding who can marry whom.

Chief Charles Williams has proposed a law requiring ethnic Kalinagos to marry only each other for self-preservation. He also requested that foreigners be barred from living on the tribe's 3,800-acre reserve.

"We would like as many Kalinago people to respond and pair off so that we can multiply and protect the race," Williams said during a recent news conference.

An estimated 1,000 Kalinagos of the roughly 4,000 who live on the reserve are considered full-blooded Indians. Carib women who marry non-Indians traditionally leave the reserve, while men who do the same are allowed to stay.

Several legislators said Friday that they refuse to entertain the marriage proposal.

Such a measure would be "legislating who a person can marry, and this cannot be so," Sen. Claduous Stanford told The Associated Press.

Kent Auguiste, a member of the Carib Indian council that oversees the reserve, said the culture should be preserved but not at the expense of personal freedom.

The impoverished Kalinago tribe relies mostly on banana and citrus farming.