Jorge Baracutay Estevez

Kasike (chief) Jorge Baracutay Estevez is Taino from the island of Kisikeya (Haiti/Dominican Republic). Estevez worked at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian for 25 years, as a volunteer, contractor, and museum program specialist. During his time at the NMAI, he worked on more than 400 public programs featuring Indigenous people from North, South, and Central America as well as the Caribbean. In 2009, he formed a research group, Higuayagua, dedicated to learning about Indigenous Caribbean culture, language, and spiritual traditions. He and his tribe, the Higuayagua Taino tribe, have created a dictionary, "Hiwatahia Hekexi Taino Dictionary," of their efforts to rebuild the language. He can be reached at higuayagua2016@gmail.com.