Eagle Clan Arawaks
This page records the documented history, lineage, and cultural continuity of the Eagle Clan Lokono people, including their ancestral homeland in Guyana and the formation of their modern diaspora across the Caribbean and beyond. It is presented as a cultural and historical archive for future generations.
Eagle Clan Arawaks
Eagle Clan Arawaks
The Lokono are an Arawakan-speaking Indigenous people native to the northern coastal and riverine regions of South America. Today, Lokono communities and descendants are found primarily in Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Venezuela, Barbados, and throughout the wider Caribbean diaspora.
The Lokono language is the eponymous language of the Arawakan language family, which at the time of European contact constituted the most widespread linguistic family in the Caribbean and northern South America. While approximately ten thousand Lokono people remain today, only a small minority retain fluency in the language, with most speakers aged fifty and over. The majority of younger Lokono speak English, Dutch, French, or Spanish as a result of colonial and post-colonial education systems in which the Lokono language has never been formally taught.
Eagle Clan Arawaks
Eagle Clan Arawaks
In their own language, the people call themselves Lokono, meaning “many people.” A single individual is referred to as Loko, while Lokobe refers to “some people” of the same tribe. The name of the language is also Lokono, as in the phrase “Da jiabo Loko,” meaning “I speak the language.”
The term “Arawak” does not exist in the Lokono language. It was applied externally by the Warrau people of the Orinoco Delta, who had early contact with Spanish colonists in Trinidad. European chroniclers subsequently adopted the name and applied it broadly to the Lokono. In the nineteenth century, Western scholars further extended the term to include Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, creating lasting confusion between mainland Lokono and the Taíno peoples of the islands. Modern scholarship now distinguishes clearly between these groups, with Lokono recognized as the correct self-designation of the mainland people.
Eagle Clan Arawaks
Indigenous peoples have the inherent right to self‑identify according to their own histories, cultures, and identities. This right is affirmed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which recognizes Indigenous peoples’ right to determine their own identity, belonging, and continuity as distinct peoples.
For the Eagle Clan Lokono Arawaks, self‑identification is not symbolic or theoretical. It reflects lived lineage, cultural responsibility, and ongoing continuity as a Lokono Arawak diaspora clan. International recognition of this right affirms what our history, memory, and living presence already establish.
Eagle Clan Arawaks
Eagle Clan Arawaks
Linguistic and archaeological evidence places the origins of the Arawakan language family in the Amazonian region of present-day Bolivia, followed by gradual northward migration through Colombia and into the Orinoco River Valley. It was in the Orinoco region that the Lokono language and cultural identity fully developed.
From there, Lokono-speaking peoples spread throughout the Guianas and into the Caribbean islands, establishing settlements along rivers, coasts, and fertile lowlands. By the time of European contact, Lokono speakers occupied much of what is now Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Barbados, Trinidad, and the Lesser Antilles, until later migrations by Kalinago groups altered the demographic landscape of the islands.
Eagle Clan Arawaks
Eagle Clan Arawaks
Prior to European contact, Lokono society was organized around autonomous villages, each led by a hereditary chief known as the Kafotay. Leadership succession followed matrilineal lines, often passing from uncle to nephew or between brothers within the maternal family.
The Lokono also recognized distinct clans, a fact documented in both Indigenous and academic sources. Father Peter Bennett of Kabakaburi, a Lokono elder and Anglican priest, recorded multiple traditional clan names in his writings, including Korobahado. These records are corroborated by the Smithsonian Institution’s 1945 Handbook of South American Indians, which documents Lokono social organization in detail.
Eagle Clan Arawaks
Eagle Clan Arawaks
Although the Spanish rapidly colonized much of the Caribbean, the Lokono and other mainland peoples resisted European domination for several centuries. During the seventeenth century, the Lokono entered into strategic alliances with European powers, including Spain, in opposition to neighboring Kalinago groups aligned with the English and Dutch.
Over time, missionary activity and colonial administration profoundly altered Lokono society. Traditional spiritual practices were suppressed, hereditary leadership structures were replaced with European-style governance, and Christianization became widespread. The cumulative effect of these processes was a significant disruption of cultural transmission, particularly in spiritual knowledge, language use, and ancestral history.
Eagle Clan Arawaks
Eagle Clan Arawaks
The Eagle Clan Lokono diaspora descends directly from the final hereditary ruling family of the Upper Demerara River Lokono Chiefdom in what is now Guyana. This chiefdom, traditionally known as Toh Isauka, was located approximately one hundred and fifteen miles south of present-day Linden and extended from present-day Muritaro to Malali and Great Falls.
Toh Isauka was one of only two palisaded Lokono villages ever recorded in Guyana, indicating its political and ceremonial importance. The chiefdom survived longer than most Lokono territories, evading full colonial control until the late nineteenth century.
Eagle Clan Arawaks
Eagle Clan Arawaks
The last surviving daughter of the Eagle Clan hereditary chief was Amorotahe Haubariria, whose childhood Lokono name was Shoko Laliwa, meaning “Little Yellow Butterfly.” In 1892, following Anglican baptism by Bishop William Austin, she was given the Christian name Marian Lucky.
Born in 1879, Marian experienced a traditional Lokono upbringing, including a customary nine-day puberty rite. Although later Christianized, she retained elements of ancestral animist spirituality throughout her life, including the ritual use of sacred tobacco for prayer and protection.
In 1899, Marian married Vivian Arnold DeWever, a Creole Dutch businessman involved in inland trade. The couple relocated to Georgetown, where they lived as part of the colonial commercial community. In 1921, during a formal reception honoring the visiting Prince of Wales, the British Governor of Guiana introduced her publicly as “Princess Marian of the Arawaks,” acknowledging her descent from the last hereditary Lokono chief of the region.
In 1925, following the collapse of her husband’s business interests, Marian emigrated with her six children to Barbados. All Lokono descendants in Barbados trace their ancestry to this family line. Marian died in 1928 and was buried at Westbury Cemetery in Bridgetown. Her grave is the only known burial site of a Lokono royal in the Caribbean and bears inscriptions in both English and the Lokono language.
Eagle Clan Arawaks
While the ruling family entered the diaspora, other members of the former chiefdom resettled along the Mahaica River, where Pakuri Village, also known as St. Cuthbert’s Mission, was established. Families from the Upper Demerara and Mahaicony regions, including the Simon brothers, formed the core of the new community.
Pakuri became the primary center for the preservation of the Lokono language and retained the last known traditional Bahi dedicated solely to ancestral animist spirituality. Despite missionary pressure, a small number of Lokono continued to practice traditional beliefs, often privately.
Eagle Clan Arawaks
David Arnold DeWeaver (1908–1995)
The First Faithkeeper of the Eagle Clan Lokono‑Arawaks
David Arnold DeWeaver was a central figure in the twentieth‑century survival and reconnection of the Eagle Clan Lokono‑Arawaks. A faithkeeper, community leader, and World War II veteran, his life bridged ancestral responsibility, military service, and later efforts to restore disrupted connections between the Diaspora and Pakuri Lokono territory in Guyana.
Born in October 1908, DeWeaver served with Allied forces during World War II, including campaigns in North Africa and Sicily. Family records and community histories recount that during the war he survived repeated bombing raids and aerial attacks while stationed at port facilities and aboard British merchant vessels. According to these accounts, he was involved in the defense of ships under air assault and later became known within the Clan as the only Lokono‑Arawak member recorded to have shot down an enemy aircraft during the conflict.
Within Eagle Clan oral history, DeWeaver’s wartime survival is also remembered through spiritual narratives passed down by his grandmother, who was said to have appeared to him in dreams warning him of impending danger. These stories form part of the Clan’s understanding of spiritual protection, faithkeeping, and ancestral intervention during times of crisis.
Following the war, DeWeaver returned to Guyana in the 1960s and sought to pursue legal claims related to the former Demerara chieftain lands, which had been absorbed into state ownership after independence. Though his efforts in the courts were ultimately unsuccessful, they represent one of the earliest modern attempts by Eagle Clan descendants to challenge the loss of ancestral territories and to re‑establish legal recognition of historic land tenure along the Demerara River.
Despite these setbacks, DeWeaver remained a respected elder within the Clan. His story, leadership, and wartime service were preserved through family memory in Pakuri and among diaspora descendants, where younger generations continued to learn of his life and responsibilities as a faithkeeper.
On May 5, 2020, the twenty‑fifth anniversary of his passing, his legacy was formally commemorated through the creation of an Indigenous Medal of Honour established by Eagle Clan faithkeeper David Rurcore. Named in DeWeaver’s memory, the medal was created to recognize acts of courage, service, and protection carried out by Indigenous individuals in situations of danger. This award now stands as a contemporary extension of DeWeaver’s legacy, linking twentieth‑century sacrifice with present‑day recognition of Indigenous bravery across borders.
Through both historical record and living tradition, David Arnold DeWeaver remains remembered within the Eagle Clan Lokono‑Arawaks as a figure of humility, endurance, and steadfast responsibility, whose life continues to inform the Clan’s understanding of faithkeeping, survival, and reconnection in the modern era.
Eagle Clan Arawaks
As of 2025, Eagle Clan Lokono descendants number approximately one hundred in Barbados, one hundred and fifteen in the United Kingdom, eighty-five in Cuba, fifteen in the United States, and ten in Canada, with several hundred relatives residing on Pakuri Lokono territory in Guyana.
While many Lokono today are unaware of their detailed ancestral history due to generational knowledge loss, the lineage itself remains intact and documented.
Eagle Clan Arawaks
Eagle Clan Arawaks
Traditional Lokono spirituality is animist in nature and is understood as an inherent way of relating to the world rather than a religion one converts to. Lokono belief recognizes a supreme, biologically genderless creative force, as well as observable masculine and feminine expressions of creation manifested through the sun, moon, and earth.
The Semichichi, or shaman, serves as an intermediary between the physical and spiritual worlds, assisting the community rather than ruling it. Sacred tobacco plays a central role in prayer, purification, and rites of passage, including puberty rituals and communal ceremonies held within the circular Bahi.
Eagle Clan Arawaks
Lokono ancestral teachings emphasize generosity, truthfulness, bravery, compassion, gratitude, and respect for life. These values were understood as innate human knowledge rather than commandments imposed by external authority.
Eagle Clan Arawaks
This history is recorded to ensure that the knowledge, lineage, and cultural foundations of the Eagle Clan Lokono are not lost to time. It is preserved as a resource for descendants, researchers, and all those who seek to understand Lokono history with accuracy and respect.
