Hispaniola's Native Population

The original inhabitants of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola were the Tainos. Hispaniola was the most developed and populated of the many islands settled by the Tainos. It served as the main hub for their suprisingly complex series of outposts and population centers, receiving salt and agricultural products from satellite villages according to a relatively complex logistics schedule. The Tainos used a caste system based upon the rule of regional chiefdoms, with both male and female Caciques, or chiefs, along matrilineal lines of succession, in order to weave the far flung outposts together into a cohesive society. This web was further strengthened by both male and female polygamy, sometimes including up to thirty spouses, whose heirs and heiresses sired massive extended families.
References:
Hispaniola: Caribbean Chiefdoms in the Age of Columbus
Author: Wilson, Samuel Meredith 1957-
Published: Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, c1990

The Chief Is Dead, Long Live . . . Who? Descent and Succession in the Protohistoric
Chiefdoms of the Greater Antilles
Authors: L. Antonio Curet, Field Museum of Natural History