Nagua in the context of Samaná (town)

Ciguayo (Siwayo) was the language of the Samaná Peninsula of Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic) at the time of the Spanish Conquest. The Ciguayos appear to have predated the agricultural Taíno who inhabited much of the island. The language appears to have been moribund at the time of Spanish contact, and within a century it was extinct.

Ciguayo was spoken on the northeastern coast of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Magua from Nagua southward to at least the Yuna River, and throughout the Samana Peninsula.

The Ciguayos (Spanish pronunciation: [siˈɣwaʝos] sih-GWAH-yohs) were a group of Indigenous people who inhabited the Samaná Peninsula and its adjoining regions in the present-day Dominican Republic. The Ciguayos appear to have predated the agricultural Taíno who inhabited much of the island. Ciguayo language was spoken on the northeastern coast of the Maguá chiefdom from Nagua southward to at least the Yuna River, and throughout all of the Samaná Province.

Since the moment of contact early Spanish writers perceived them as a threat and portrayed them flaunting long hair and brandishing bows with poisoned arrows. Their archery tradition is linked to the Kalinago, or Island Caribs. Their legacy has spawned folktales, and since the 19th century, their memory has been at the center of the Dominican indigenist movement.