US officials return 23 Taino artifacts to Dominican gov’t
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – U.S. officials have returned 23 smuggled pre-Colombian artifacts seized by authorities to the Dominican Republic.
The smuggled items include a hatchet, a chisel and a mortar and pestle created by the Taino people who lived in the Caribbean before the arrival of Christopher Columbus.
U.S. Ambassador James Brewster and a Puerto Rico-based agent with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations on Tuesday returned to the artifacts to the Dominican culture minister.
Brewster said the artifacts represented the “rich heritage of this nation and its indigenous roots.”
It wasn’t immediately clear where all the smuggled items were recovered.
Diseases brought by European settlers largely wiped out the Taino people.
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