The Santa Rosa First Peoples Community is the major organisation of indigenous people in

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

. The Caribs of

Arima Arima, officially The Royal Chartered Borough of Arima is the easternmost and second largest in area of the three boroughs of Trinidad and Tobago. It is geographically adjacent to Sangre Grande and Arouca at the south central foothills of ...

are descended from the original

Amerindian The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the A ...

inhabitants of Trinidad; Amerindians from the former ''

encomienda The ''encomienda'' () was a Spanish labour system that rewarded conquerors with the labour of conquered non-Christian peoples. The labourers, in theory, were provided with benefits by the conquerors for whom they laboured, including military ...

s'' of Tacarigua and Arauca ( Arouca) were resettled to Arima between 1784 and 1786. The SRCC was incorporated in 1973 to preserve the culture of the Caribs of Arima and maintain their role in the annual Santa Rosa Festival (dedicated to Santa Rosa de Lima, the first

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Or ...

canonised in the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

). The SRCC is headed by its President Ricardo Bharath Hernandez and maintains a leadership role among indigenous organisations in Trinidad. The community is also the base for the Carib Queen. The Amerindians were relocated to open their lands for settlement by the influx of French settlers brought in by the ''Cedula of Population'' and to separate the indigenous people from the newcomers (''see:

History of Trinidad and Tobago The history of Trinidad and Tobago begins with the settlements of the islands by Indigenous First Peoples. Trinidad was visited by Christopher Columbus on his third voyage in 1498, (he never landed in Tobago), and claimed in the name of Spain. ...

''). The Mission was granted 1000 acres (4 km²) of land by Governor José María Chacón, and Governor

Ralph Woodford Sir Ralph James Woodford, 2nd Baronet (1784–17 May 1828), was a British colonial administrator who was the longest-serving governor of Trinidad. Young and energetic, from 1813 he sought to bring order to Trinidad society and greatly improved ...

added 320 acres (1.3 km²). However, as the Mission gradually dissolved, these lands were seized by the state.

External links

* * * {{Authority control Carib people Ethnic groups in Trinidad and Tobago Indigenous peoples in Trinidad and Tobago Arima