Editing Haiti (section)

===Pre-Columbian era===
[[File:Copia de Cacicazgos de la Hispaniola.png|thumb|upright=1.6|The five [[cacique]]doms of Hispaniola at the time of the arrival of Christopher Columbus]]
The island of [[Hispaniola]], of which Haiti occupies the western three-eighths,<ref name="Dardik" /><ref name="Current Affairs" /> has been inhabited since around 6,000 years ago by Native Americans who are thought to have arrived from Central or northern South America. These Archaic Age people are thought to have been largely hunter gatherers. During the [[1st millennium BC]], the Arawakan-speaking ancestors of the Taino people began to migrate into the Caribbean. Unlike the Archaic peoples, they practiced the intensive production of [[pottery]] and agriculture. The earliest evidence of the ancestors of the Taino people on Hispaniola is the Ostionoid culture, which dates to around 600 AD.<ref name=":132">{{Cite journal|last1=Fernandes|first1=Daniel M.|last2=Sirak|first2=Kendra A.|last3=Ringbauer|first3=Harald|last4=Sedig|first4=Jakob|last5=Rohland|first5=Nadin|last6=Cheronet|first6=Olivia|last7=Mah|first7=Matthew|last8=Mallick|first8=Swapan|last9=Olalde|first9=Iñigo |last10=Culleton |first10=Brendan J.|last11=Adamski|first11=Nicole|last12=Bernardos|first12=Rebecca|last13=Bravo|first13=Guillermo|last14=Broomandkhoshbacht|first14=Nasreen|last15=Callan|first15=Kimberly|date=2021-02-04|title=A genetic history of the pre-contact Caribbean|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=590|issue=7844|pages=103–110|bibcode=2021Natur.590..103F|doi=10.1038/s41586-020-03053-2|issn=0028-0836|pmc=7864882|pmid=33361817}}</ref> {{Main|Chiefdoms of Hispaniola}}In Taíno society the largest unit of political organization was led by a ''[[cacique]]'', or chief, as the Europeans understood them. At the time of European contact, the island of Hispaniola was divided among five 'caciquedoms': the Magua in the northeast, the Marien in the northwest, the Jaragua in the southwest, the Maguana in the central regions of Cibao, and the Higüey in the southeast.<ref>{{cite book|last=Cassá|first=Roberto|title=Los Indios de Las Antillas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oJ-wJ49cNwAC&pg=PA126|year=1992|publisher=Editorial Abya Yala|isbn=978-84-7100-375-1|pages=126–|access-date=27 June 2015|archive-date=11 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240111004223/https://books.google.com/books?id=oJ-wJ49cNwAC&pg=PA126#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Samuel M.|last=Wilson|year=1990|title=Hispaniola: Caribbean Chiefdoms in the Age of Columbus|publisher=University of Alabama Press|page=110|isbn=978-0-8173-0462-1}}</ref>

Taíno cultural artifacts include [[cave paintings]] in several locations in the country. These have become national symbols of Haiti and tourist attractions. Modern-day [[Léogâne]], started as a French colonial town in the southwest, is beside the former capital of the caciquedom of ''Xaragua.''<ref name="royal">{{cite journal|url=http://www.millersville.edu/~columbus/data/ant/ROYAL-01.ANT|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090216092556/http://www.millersville.edu/~columbus/data/ant/ROYAL-01.ANT|archive-date=16 February 2009|title=1492 and Multiculturalism|last=Royal|first=Robert|journal=The Intercollegiate Review|date=Spring 1992|volume=27|issue=2|pages=3–10}}</ref>