The Logo of the Caribbean Amerindian Centrelink:

The letters of the logo forming the acronym CAC depict a horizon with volcanic earth in the lower half and early morning light in the top half.  The horizon itself can be seen as symbolizing new perspectives on the past and new potential for the future, given that we are dealing both with renewed appreciations and innovative understandings of the Caribbean Amerindian past, while also witnessing the resurgent Amerindian communities and identities across the Caribbean. The acronym is circled by a band of blue and yellow:  the blue stands for the Caribbean sea and the yellow for the Caribbean sun. The circle itself represents the formation of new bonds and connections between the various established Amerindian groups (i.e., those on reservations) and other resurgent groups formed in the last ten to twenty years and often located in urban areas. Hence, the circle represents linkage, connection, and reciprocity.  The "head" of the letter "A," standing for Amerindian, is crowned with a single feather, which is meant to represent the head-dresses worn by both the traditional and some contemporary Amerindian leaders. The letters are also deliberately meant to evoke a "modern" and metallic feel in order to symbolize the modern technologies involved in forging these new communication links. The logo was designed by Maximilian C. Forte in April of 1999.
 

The Geographic Coverage of the Caribbean Amerindian Centrelink:

Defining the extent of the Caribbean has long been a contentious subject. We have chosen a compromise of sorts between the Caribbean Basin definition (all islands and mainland territories bordering on the Caribbean sea) and the Antillean definition (focusing exclusively on the island archipelago). For one, the Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, itself includes Belize and Guyana, both English-speaking territories, and both of these have Amerindian descended populations that run through the Caribbean Islands. We also include Latin American territories such as Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico because of their Taino populations.  Venezuelan Amerindians have long formed an integral part of the makeup of Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, hence it seemed appropriate to include that as well. Suriname and French Guyana share many of the same Amerindian populations as Guyana and the Lesser Antilles, as well as Venezuela. Northern South America is believed to be the major source of the Caribbean Amerindian population.  In modern times, with the advent of mass out migration to North America, and the foundation of Caribbean Amerindian organizations in Florida, New York and New Jersey, it seemed appropriate to include these given their Caribbean connection even though the United States may not be seen as a geographic part of the Caribbean.

To put it simply, we followed these parameters: 1) the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) region; 2) the membership of the Caribbean Organization of Indigenous People (Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, St. Vincent, Dominica, Belize); 3) the location of Taino organizations (Cuba, DR, PR, New York, New Jersey, Florida); and, 4) northern South America. The emphasis was not on constructing an ideal definition using theoretical means, but a working definition grounded in actual interactions, connections and population movements.  The intent was to produce a site that was neither so imprecise and general as to take us all the way back across the Bering Straits into Asia, nor over specifically focused on the islands of the Caribbean alone.

The map below shows the current coverage of the CAC. Position your cursor on a given territory in order to view the dominant indigenous group(s) of that area. A similar map, can be found on the Amerindian Communities page.