New Exhibit at the Virgin Islands Museum Exploring History and Culture of Indigenous People in Territory

A new exhibit at the Virgin Islands Children’s Museum is exploring the history and culture of Indigenous people in the territory, the museum has made known in a release. The exhibit was developed in partnership with the Guainía Taíno Tribe of the Virgin Islands in what is slated to be the first of a multiphase endeavor to celebrate and educate visitors about Pre-Columbian Virgin Islanders: Taino, Kalinago (Karib), and Igneri (Arawak). According to the release, the VI Guainía Taíno Tribal kasike (chieftain) Maekiaphan Phillips and other members of the tribe have erected a replica of a Taíno bohío inside the Virgin Islands Children’s Museum to bolster cultural survival and educate visitors about ancestral Taíno life. A bohío (boh-ee-oh) is a house built of woven palm leaves and wood from the royal palm tree. The thatched roofed hut has been filled with household objects needed for the maintenance of an ancestral Taíno family; a pretend play fire pit, agricultural products such as corn, ...