Carib KAR ihb, Indians, were a warlike group of South American tribes who lived mainly in the Amazon River Valley and the Guiana lowlands. These fierce Indians ate their war captives. Our word cannibal comes from the Spanish name for these Indians. About 1300, the Carib moved from northeastern South America to islands in the Caribbean Sea now known as the Windward Islands. They captured these islands from the Arawak Indians (see Arawak Indians).