Cacique or Cazique (female form: Cacica) from the taíno word for the pre-Columbian tribal chiefs or leaders, of the Taino tribes in the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. Following their first encounters with the Taino upon thier arrival in the New World, the Spanish used the word as a title for the leaders of the other American tribes they encountered predominantly in Latin America. The term is also often used in contemporary American literature (Momaday's House Made of Dawn for example) to refer to Native American group leaders in the United States.
Dispute
Some historians, such as Charles C. Mann in his book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus (2005), have objected to the use of the term instead of "king" to refer to the Native American monarchs, even if it is widely employed for the leaders of the so called Barbarians in European history ? such as king of the Huns, the Franks, the Goths, and so on. They also called in English Chieftain
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