Historically the Indigenous people of Trinidad who many know as Arawak and Carib, have been ignored so badly that it has become a wide spread belief that we do not exist any longer in Trinidad. Some believe that we died out before Columbus arrived, despite the fact that more than half of the cities in Trinidad carry Indigenous names as well as the name Tobago itself being the Taino word for Tobacco. Our people have been fighting to maintain some sort of identity for so long that many of us have developed a sense of worthlessness as a result of having an absence of recognized tradition and culture, while other cultural communities around us thrive and are even given government support and lands. As it stands today, we control none of Trinidad's industries and resources. We are today the most underprivileged people of the twin islands, despite the fact that our ancestors provided for all that came to the island with open hospitality and kindness as illustrated in the journals of people like Columbus and Sir Walter Riley. This was and still is being re-payed with cultural flooding, and colonization that reduces our people and our culture to a state of insignificance. On May 8th 1990, The office of the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago announced that "Cabinet has decided that the Santa Rosa Carib Community be recognized as representative of the indigenous Amerindians of Trinidad and Tobago”. While this was a great milestone for the Santa Rosa Carib community, this still left many other indigenous tribes, especially those of Arawaka'n language groups, such as the Arawak's of Tyrico, Yara, Aripo, Rio Claro, and Cumana without any hope of ever having the respect or recognition of the Government or people of Trinidad and Tobago until the United Nations Decoration of the Rights of Indigenous People Ratification of the General Assembly of September 13th, 2007, or DRIP as it is called in short. This UN Ratification is now international law, and is part of the same structure that recognizes the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago as a sovereign state. Bellow is a link the fourty six Articles held within the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People. If you believe that the government of Trinidad and Tobago should, as the rest of the world has, act in accordance with the articles set forth in a document that they them selves helped ratify. BY JOINING WITH THOSE WHO SIGN THIS PETITION, YOU SEND A MESSAGE TO THE TRINIDAD GOVERNMENT THAT THE PEOPLE OF OUR GREAT NATION ARE READY TO RECOGNIZE IT'S INDIGENOUS POPULATION FOR WHO THEY ARE. GOD BLESS ALL THE PEOPLE OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf you may need to copy and paste the above link in to your browser to open the UN declaration document

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