For Indigenous Peoples’ Day, I post about Anacaona, the first Native woman chieftain known to resist the Spanish invasion and conquest of the Americas.
Traditional depictions of Anacaona relate her preeminent stature as a poet; her uncommon beauty and allure; her intelligence and cunning; her exercise of authority during her brother Chief Behecchio’s rule and ascension to chieftain on his death; and her inclination and ability to negotiate with “Española’s” conquerors.
The new book relates her shrewdness and competence in making decisions—first as her brother’s advisor and then as chieftain herself—on how to prevent Columbus’s and his successors’ conquest of central Española from extending west to envelope their chiefdom of Xaraguá. The following sketches of her were drawn for and included in the new book.
