Bonaire National Marine Park - LAC - HISTORY

Although the oldest archaeological sites on Bonaire are at Lagun, Lac has radiocarbon dates indicating that people lived around the bay about 3000 years ago.

The ancestors of the first Bonaireans crossed the sea from the main land of South America to the island of Curaçao about 4500 years ago. After living for approximately a thousand years on Curaçao, and adapting well to island conditions, some of these people migrated to Bonaire. These first inhabitants of Bonaire were hunter-fisher-gatherers, meaning they did not have knowledge of agricultural methods. They lived primarily from the sea and particularly from the resources found in the mangroves, such as fish, shellfish, crabs, birds and iguanas.

At about 1500 years ago, the first people of the Arawakan-speaking Caiquetio ethnic group from Venezuela arrived on Bonaire. Early on, they inhabited the area around Lac with a particularly large village site near Wanapa. They chose this mostly for the rich agricultural soils to be found inland from the bay and the canoe landing places along the bay shore. These Caiquetio people grew maize, manioc, squash, beans, and many other crops and were also living from fishing and shellfish gathering in the bay. One of the largest Caiquetio conch shell workstations was at Sorobon, the area of Aw’i Meuwchi to be more specific. They would extract the conch meat to eat, but also break the conch shell for making tools. Caiquetio sites are known to have been around Lac up until the time of contact with Europeans about 500 years ago.

In the region of Lac, there were four pre-Colombian villages. It is easy to understand why the Indians liked living here. They could find fresh water nearby while they were close to Lac and its food sources. In addition, the soil contained clay, which they used for making pots and utensils. This was the start of the Ceramic time, which refers to a certain level of technical development including making ceramics and working in agriculture and indicates a more complete social organization.

Archeological investigations show that there were also Indian dwellings at the Sorobon side of Lac. The pre-Colombian Indians lived very well, since they were able to get drinking water from several wells in the area.

The inhabitants of Lac kept their living area very clean by burning their garbage as well as burning leaves and branches in order to chase the mosquitoes away. The garbage that could not be burned was buried. The constant stream of fresh water passing through Lac, also added to the cleanliness of the area.

Several families lived for many generations on the peninsula of Cai. The area of Lac has two peninsulas: Cai and Sorobon. The men would go fishing and the women would go to the near villages to sell the fish. They specialized in making baskets from the roots of the Mangrove trees. The mangrove roots were used for several purposes such as sticks for building houses, canisters, clothing, baskets and charcoal. The mangroves were very important to the inhabitants of Cai as well as the fish living in the roots. Unfortunately, the mangroves were also the place where mosquitoes bred. There are two kinds of mangroves: the red one (Rihzophora mangrove) and the white one (Avecennia germinans).

In 1994 an investigation was conducted and showed 80 different types of fish in Lac. Since there were no freezers in the old days, salting the fish was the way to preserve the fish. There was a salt lake, east of Lac, in which the necessary salt could be found. The women and children living in Cai mostly did the salting and drying of the fish.

In 1989, the Island Council of Bonaire unanimously accepted a motion that stated that Lac should stay a natural area and tourist development was not permitted. This was a positive move since Lac is known around the world for its natural treasures. The beauty of Lac has touched several movie directors, photographers and songwriters and it served as their inspirational source.

It is interesting to reflect on where the name Lac and Sorobon might originate. “Is Lac a French name? Does Sorobon come from “La Sorobonne de Paris”? Still the French influence on the population of Bonaire was not as great as on Curaçao, where they counted 500 French in the 18th and 19th century. There are very few geographic names, which remind us of the time that French families came to live on Bonaire.

The very old maps of Bonaire indicate that the name Lac was already known for many years. It is very possible that the name Lac comes from the word “laguna”. Lac is a lagoon, for sure one of the biggest in the Netherlands Antilles. Perhaps, since there was another place with the name Lagun (Lagoon), it was decided, to make a distinction, by using only the name Lac.

Source: ‘The First Bonaireans’ by Dr. Jay Haviser and ‘Lac, historia di un bahia’ by Boy Antoin.