Jose Barreiro is a writer, Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

n native, journalist and former professor of Native American

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 Studies at Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

. He is a member of the Taíno Nation of the Antilles

Taíno people

The Taínos were pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. It is thought that the seafaring Taínos are relatives of the Arawak people of South America...

.

Barreiro currently serves as director of Office for Latin America, at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

National Museum of the American Indian

The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum operated under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution that is dedicated to the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of the native Americans of the Western Hemisphere...

. Barreiro was an early editor and contributor at Akwesasne Notes (1976–1984), during the years of Seneca

Seneca nation

The Seneca are a group of indigenous people native to North America. They were the nation located farthest to the west within the Six Nations or Iroquois League in New York before the American Revolution. While exact population figures are unknown, approximately 15,000 to 25,000 Seneca live in...

 luminary John Mohawk. At Akwesasne Notes, Barreiro led the human rights group, Emergency Response International Network. Later, he and Mohawk founded the Indigenous Peoples Network.

At Cornell, Barreiro was founding editor of Native Americas Journal (1995–2002). In 2003-2006, he redesigned and was Senior editor of Indian Country Today. He is also the editor of Indian Roots of American Democracy, (1988), and the ethnographical testimony Panchito: Mountain Cacique (2001). Barreiro's first novel, published in 1993, was The Indian Chronicles, a pseudo-journal of the life of Diego Colon, a 12-year-old Taino

Taíno people

The Taínos were pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. It is thought that the seafaring Taínos are relatives of the Arawak people of South America...

 whom Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...

 takes with him to Spain in 1493, and who later returns to the Americas, where he supports the Taino resistance led by Guarocuya

Enriquillo

Enriquillo was a Taíno Cacique who rebelled against the Spaniards from 1519 to 1533. His father was killed while attending peace talks with the Spanish, along with eighty other regional chieftains under the direction of his aunt Anacaona in Jaragua. During the talks, Spanish soldiers set the...

. A recent book, America is Indian Country, canvasses issues and personalities in Indian Country

Indian Territory

The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...

. Barreiro is also editor of the announced book, Thinking in Indian: A John Mohawk Reader.