PBS Video – Who are the Taino?

The Taino also had a substantial presence in the Southeastern United States and were members of the Creek Confederacy.

Video posted by Richard L. Thornton, Architect & City Planner

Tennessee is the Anglicization of the Creek proper noun, Taenasi, which means “Descendants of the Taeno.”

The Taino Province of Toa (or Toasi), on the lower Ocmulgee River in central Georgia, was visited by the Hernando de Soto Expedition in the spring of 1540.

The original name of Jekyll Island, Georgia was Guadauquini . . . the Taino word for a ceremonial circle.

The original name for Cumberland Island, GA was Takatakura, which means “Takata People” . . . a Carib tribe in the Lesser Antilles and Venezuela.

A large Taino Province was also located along the Chattahoochee River in southwest Metro Atlanta. Sweetwater Creek State Park is the site of the province’s capital and a hilltop “guadauquini.” The amazing Sweetwater Creek stela may be viewed at the park’s museum.

The Sweetwater Creek stela was discovered in 1904 in the center of a quadaquini at the top of a large, steep hill, overlooking the Chattahoochee River, just south of Six Flags Over Georgia amusement park. This archeological site is within the boundaries of the state park and be visited with permission of park rangers. One of the first successful efforts of “The Americas Revealed” was making the Georgia Parks and Historic Sites Division aware of the stela’s significance so that it would be cleaned and put on public display.