Indigenous peoples and the emergence of the Caribbean Creoles

Contrary to most of the dominant discourses on Caribbean history, a close and critical re-examination and re-analysis of historical, archaeological, genetic, and other evidence suggests that the indigenous peoples of the insular Caribbean and their descendants were in the right places, at the right times, in sufficient numbers, and in positions of sufficient power and prestige to have had a significant impact not only on the lexicon, but also on the grammatical structures of the Caribbean Creoles. By acknowledging that throughout the colonial history of the Caribbean, Indigenous and other marginalized peoples had their own demographic, social, economic, political, and cultural agendas, and that they were often successful in implementing these agendas, it becomes apparent that the multiplex matrix from which the Caribbean Creoles emerged must be further complicated and elaborated to include Indigenous influences on creole grammatical structures.