The Taino Indians, the earliest native Americans, are known not only for the diversity of their culture and the richness of their crafts, but also for having been the New World's inhabitants in contact with Christopher Colombus in 1492; less than a half century later, none were left. They had set up a monarchical social system headed by a cacique - a chief - who was a priest and a hereditary sovereign at the same time. Caciques had the privilege of sitting on this type of honorary chair with zoomorphic motifs, used during ritual ceremonies.