A thousand-year-old tooth has provided the first clear genetic evidence that the Taíno — the indigenous people whom Columbus first encountered on arriving in the New World — still have living descendants today, despite erroneous claims in some historical narratives that these people are extinct. The findings are likely to have particular resonance for people in the Caribbean and the US who claim Taíno ancestry, but have until now been unable to prove definitively that such a thing is possible.