Indigenous peoples in Colombia
Encyclopedia
The indigenous peoples
in Colombia
(pueblos indígenos in Spanish
) comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who inhabited the country's present territory prior to its discovery by Europe
ans around 1500.
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The two main linguistic ethnic groups that dominated the territory now known as Colombia during the pre-Columbian period were the Carib and the Chibcha. They possessed different organizational structures and distinct languages and cultures. In upper Magdalene region, from 5th to 8th century, many tumuli with sculptures were raised in San Agustin
. The region now occupied by the city of Bogotá
was inhabited by the Muisca
. In the modern area of Colombian Coffee-Growers Axis
, the Quimbaya civilization
existed until the 10th century A.D. The Muisca based their social organization on trade. They exchanged salt
, emeralds, beans, maize
and other crops with other Chibchan tribes such as the Chitareros, Guanes
and Laches
.
A number of centralised chiefdoms were located in the northern Cauca River
valley, and along the Cordillera Occidental and Cordillera Central
mountain ranges. One of these, Buriticá, was linked by long distance trade routes, with particularly Antioquian gold traded for a range of items across northern South America, the Antilles, and into Central America. The routes linked a range of different ethno-linguistic groups, including Chibcha
, Carib people and Arawak people.
(ONIC - Organización Nacional Indígena de Colombia). Increasing organization and agitation have sharply broadened the indigenous land base over the past forty years. The government titled more than 200 new reserves from 1960 to 1990, with 334 total operating as autonomous municipalities by 1997 (Brysk 2000:267).
and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
of Colombia, while lowland peoples refer to the inhabitants of Chocó
, Amazonia
, Guajira
and the Caribbean Coast, the Urabá Region and other non-mountain cultures.
, an indigenous guerrilla group from Cauca
, demobilized in 1990, joined a peaceful political process that lead to a recognition of cultural, social, and economic rights in the 1991 Colombian Constitution. The 1991 Colombian Constitution, International Labor Organization Convention 169
, and Colombian national law 21 all protect the cultural and territorial rights of indigenous people
.
On December 16, 1991, at least 40 indigenous men, women, and children from the Nasa tribe were massacred in the Huella community in northern Cauca by a bloc of the AUC
paramilitary organization. The Fiscalia, Colombia’s version of the Chief Prosecutor, former Colombian President Ernesto Samper
, and the Inter-American Court for Human Rights have all denounced state involvement with the atrocities.
3,000 Nasa were displaced from the area by the AUC in 2001.
Since 2005, CRIC and other indigenous communities have engaged in a civil resistance and land recuperation project that they call “Liberar la Madre Tierra”, or “Liberate Mother Earth”, to reclaim and recuperate the traditional lands that have slowly been taken from them ever since the time of the Spanish conquistadores.
An indigenous forum in 2006 was also repressed by state security forces using live ammunition. On November 27, 2007, four indigenous community members were seriously wounded when National Police and other men wearing civilian clothing fired on them with tear gas and pistols.
According the ONIC, more than 1200 indigenous have been murdered since 2002, and thousand have been displaced.
The Permanent People’s Tribunal of Colombia issued a statement in July 2008 warning of “the imminent danger of physical and cultural extinction faced by 28 indigenous groups,” in Colombia. The tribunal charges the Colombian government, armed actors, and transnational corporations with “the deployment of strategies that have the objective of expelling indigenous peoples from areas of economic interest…[and]…to facilitate the exploitation of these areas…by transnational corporations,” charges that the tribunal says amount to genocide.
On October 2008, 12,000 indigenous Colombians marched onto the Pan-American highway
in Cauca to call for more land and the respect of life rights. Colombian President Álvaro Uribe
refuse to talk to them, accusing FARC of having infiltrated the protest.
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
in Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
(pueblos indígenos in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
) comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who inhabited the country's present territory prior to its discovery by Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
ans around 1500.
Origins
San Agustín, Huila
San Agustín is a town and municipality in the southern Colombian Department of Huila. The town is located 227 km away from the capital of the Department, Neiva. Population is around 30,000. The village was originally founded in 1752 by Alejo Astudillo but attacks by indigenous people destroyed...
. The region now occupied by the city of Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
was inhabited by the Muisca
Muisca
Muisca was the Chibcha-speaking tribe that formed the Muisca Confederation of the central highlands of present-day Colombia. They were encountered by the Spanish Empire in 1537, at the time of the conquest...
. In the modern area of Colombian Coffee-Growers Axis
Colombian Coffee-Growers Axis
Colombian Coffee-Growers Axis , also known as Coffee Triangle is a part of the Colombian Paisa region which is famous for growing and production of a majority of the Colombian coffee, considered by some as the best coffee in the world. There are three departments in the area: Caldas, Quindío and...
, the Quimbaya civilization
Quimbaya civilization
The Quimbaya civilization is a South American civilization, noted for spectacular gold work characterized by technical accuracy and detailed designs. The majority of the gold work is made in tumbaga alloy, with 30% copper, which imparts beautiful color tonalities to the pieces...
existed until the 10th century A.D. The Muisca based their social organization on trade. They exchanged salt
Salt
In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
, emeralds, beans, maize
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
and other crops with other Chibchan tribes such as the Chitareros, Guanes
Guanes
The Guanes were a South American people that lived mainly in the area of Santander and north of Boyacá, both modern departments of Colombia. They were farmers cultivating cotton, pineapple and other crops, and skilled artisans working in cotton textiles....
and Laches
Laches (people)
The Laches were an indigenous, agrarian people in the highlands of what is now central Colombia's northern Boyacá and Santander departments. They were part of the Cocuy Confederation and spoke a Chibchan language, trading predominantly with other Chibchan speakers, such as the Muiscas, Guanes,...
.
A number of centralised chiefdoms were located in the northern Cauca River
Cauca River
The Cauca River is a river in Colombia that lies between the Occidental and Central cordilleras. Born in southwestern Colombia near the city of Popayán, it joins the Magdalena River near Pinillos in Bolívar Department, and the combined river eventually flows out into the Caribbean Sea. It has a...
valley, and along the Cordillera Occidental and Cordillera Central
Cordillera Central, Colombia
The Cordillera Central range is one of the three branches of ridges in the Andes Mountains that split in southern Colombia towards the north up to the Montes de Maria....
mountain ranges. One of these, Buriticá, was linked by long distance trade routes, with particularly Antioquian gold traded for a range of items across northern South America, the Antilles, and into Central America. The routes linked a range of different ethno-linguistic groups, including Chibcha
Chibcha language
Chibcha, also known as Muisca or Mosca, is an extinct Chibchan language of Colombia, formerly spoken by the Muisca people, a complex indigenous civilization of South America and the present-day Colombian region. Scholars believe the Chibcha language arose in South America and then migrated with...
, Carib people and Arawak people.
Indigenist Political Organization
Individual indigenous groups have a variety of governance structures. A number of indigenous groups are represented through the National Indigenous Organization of ColombiaNational Indigenous Organization of Colombia
The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia is an organization representing the indigenous peoples of Colombia, who comprise some 800,000 people or approximately 2% of the population...
(ONIC - Organización Nacional Indígena de Colombia). Increasing organization and agitation have sharply broadened the indigenous land base over the past forty years. The government titled more than 200 new reserves from 1960 to 1990, with 334 total operating as autonomous municipalities by 1997 (Brysk 2000:267).
Territories
Indigenous peoples hold title to substantial portions of Colombia, primarily in the form of reserves . The Indigenous Affairs division of the Ministry of Interior has 567 reserves on record, covering approximately 365,004 km² which are home to 800,271 persons in 67,503 families.Major ethnic groups
Highland peoples refer to the cultures of the AndesAndes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is an isolated mountain range apart from the Andes chain that runs through Colombia. Reaching an altitude of 5,700 metres above sea level just 42 km from the Caribbean coast, the Sierra Nevada is the world's highest coastal range...
of Colombia, while lowland peoples refer to the inhabitants of Chocó
Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena
Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena is a biodiversity hotspot, which includes the tropical moist forests and tropical dry forests of the Pacific coast of South America and the Galapagos Islands. The region extends from easternmost Panama to the lower Magdalena Valley of Colombia, and along the Pacific coast of...
, Amazonia
Amazon Region of Colombia
The Amazonía Region is a region in southern Colombia. It comprises the departments of Amazonas, Caquetá, Guainía, Guaviare, Putumayo and Vaupés, and covers an area of 403,000 km², 35% of Colombia's total territory...
, Guajira
Guajira Peninsula
Guajira Peninsula , is a peninsula in northern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea...
and the Caribbean Coast, the Urabá Region and other non-mountain cultures.
Highland peoples
- ArhuacosArhuacosThe Arhuaco people, also called the Aruacos, Ica, Ijca or Bintuk, names of a Native American ethnic group part of the Chibcha family, descendents of the Tairona Culture concentrated in northern Colombia in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.-Territory:The Arhuacos live in the upper valleys of the...
/Ijka - AwáAwá (kwaiker)The Awá are an ancient indigenous people that inhabit the regions of northern Ecuador and southern Colombia . Their entire population is around 32,555 members. They speak a language called Awapit.-Reserve:The Awa Reserve was established in northwestern Ecuador in 1987...
- Coconuco
- Guambiano/Misak
- GuanesGuanesThe Guanes were a South American people that lived mainly in the area of Santander and north of Boyacá, both modern departments of Colombia. They were farmers cultivating cotton, pineapple and other crops, and skilled artisans working in cotton textiles....
- IngaInga peopleThe Inga People are an indigenous ethnic group from the Southwest region of Colombia.They speak a dialect of Quechua known as Inga Kichwa. Almost all Inga people are bi-lingual in Inga and Spanish, which has caused fear that the Inga language might be an endangered language.Many today live...
- KamsáKamsaIn Hinduism, Kamsa or Kansa , often known as Kans in Hindi, is the brother of Devaki, and ruler of the Vrishni kingdom with its capital at Mathura. His father was King Ugrasena and mother was Queen Padmavati...
(Sibundoy) - Kankuamo
- Kogui/Kággaba
- Mokaná
- MuiscaMuiscaMuisca was the Chibcha-speaking tribe that formed the Muisca Confederation of the central highlands of present-day Colombia. They were encountered by the Spanish Empire in 1537, at the time of the conquest...
- PáezPaez peopleThe Paez, also known as the Nasa, are a Native American people who live in the Andes Mountains of Colombia.-Religion:In the early 1900s, Lazarists built missions among the Paez and began the work to convert them to Christianity. Jesuits had originally tried to convert the Paez, but failed. However,...
/Nasa - Pacabuy
- Pastos
- PijaoPijaoThe Pijao are an indigenous people of Colombia.-Ethnography:The Pijao or Pijaos were a loose federation of Amerindians living in the region of Tolima -Colombia and other territories...
- SutagaosSutagaosThe Sutagaos were the settlers indigenous to the zone where today Fusagasugá is located. This community does not possess an own study in reason of the instability of the archaeological indications....
- TamaTama-Religion:* Tama , part of the soul in the Japanese Shinto faith, roughly equivalent to ghost, spirit, or soul* Tama , a votive deposit or ex-voto used in the Eastern Orthodox Churches...
- TotoróTotoroTotoro may refer to:* a character of the My Neighbor Totoro anime* Totoro, Cauca, a town and municipality in the Cauca Department, Colombia* Totoro language, one of the Coconucan languages of Colombia...
- UmbráUmbraThe umbra, penumbra and antumbra are the names given to three distinct parts of a shadow, created by any light source. For a point source only the umbra is cast.These names are most often used to refer to the shadows cast by celestial bodies....
- U'waU'wa peopleThe U'wa people are an indigenous people living in the cloud forests of northeastern Colombia. Historically, the U'wa numbered as many as 20,000, scattered over a homeland that extended across the Venezuela-Colombia border. Some 7-8,000 U'wa are alive today....
/Tunebo - WiwaWIWAWIWA is a radio station broadcasting a Spanish language Christian format. Licensed to St. Cloud, Florida, USA, it serves the greater Orlando area. The station is currently owned by Centro De La Familia Cristiana Inc....
/Sanhá - Yanacona
Lowland peoples
- Achagua
- Amorúa
- AndaquíAndaquiAndaqui is an extinct language from the southern highlands of Colombia. It may be one of the Paezan or Barbacoan languages, which may be related to each other....
- AndoqueAndoqueAndoque are an indigenous people of Colombia. They live along the Aduche tributary of the Japurá River.- Language and culture :The Andoque language is an language isolate and is extinct in Peru...
- BaraBâraBâra is a commune in Neamţ County, Romania. It is composed of three villages: Bâra, Negreşti and Rediu.-References:...
- BarasanaBarasanaThe Barasana are a Tucanoan group located in the eastern part of the Amazon basin, in the Vaupés District in Colombia and Amazonas State in Brazil. As of 2000 there were at least 500 Barasanas in Colombia, though some recent estimates place the figure as high as 1950...
- BaríBariBari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...
/Motilon - Betoye
- BoraBora peopleThe Bora are an indigenous tribe of the Peruvian, Colombian and Brazilian Amazon, located between the Putumayo and Napo rivers. The Bora speak a Witotan language and comprise approximately 2,000 people...
- Cabiyarí
- Carapana
- Carijona
- Cocama/Kokama
- CofánCofánThe Cofán people are an indigenous people native to Napo Province northeast Ecuador and to southern Colombia, between the Guamués River and the Aguaricó River...
/KofánKofanKofan is a commune in the Cercle of Sikasso in the Sikasso Region of southern Mali. The principal town lies at Kafana. As of 1998 the commune had a population of 9177.-References:... - Coreguaje
- CubeoCubeoThe Cubeo are an ethnic group of the Colombian Amazon. Cubeo is a generic name that is used in local Spanish and appears in the literature in reference to a social and linguistic group. Although the term does not have any meaning in their language, the Cubeo refer to themselves by that name in...
- Cuiba
- Curripaco
- Chimila
- Chiricoa
- Desano
- EmberáEmbera-WounaanThe Embera–Wounaan are a group of semi-nomadic Indians in Panama, living in the province of Darien at the shores of the Chucunaque, Sambu, Tuira Rivers and its water ways...
- Guahibo peopleGuahibo peopleThe Guahibo people people are an indigenous people native to Llanos or savannah plains in eastern Colombia--Arauca, Meta, Guainia, and Vichada departments--and in southern Venezuela near the Colombian border. Their population is was estimated at 23,772 people in 1998....
(Sikuani) - Guayabero
- KunaKuna (people)Kuna or Cuna is the name of an indigenous people of Panama and Colombia. The spelling Kuna is currently preferred. In the Kuna language, the name is Dule or Tule, meaning "people," and the name of the language in Kuna is Dulegaya, meaning "Kuna language" - Location :The Kuna live in three...
/Tule - Kokama
- HupdaHupdaThe Hup people, or Húpd’əh, are an Amazonian indigenous people who live in Brazil and Colombia.-Residence and neighbors:The Hupda people live in the region bordered by the rivers Tiquié and Papuri, tributaries that join the left hand bank of the river Uaupes in the Upper Rio Negro region of the...
- Letuama
- Makaguaje
- Makuna
- Masiguare
- Matapí
- Miraña
- Muinane
- Nonuya
- NukakNukakThe Nukak people live between the Guaviare and Inírida rivers, in the depths of the tropical humid forest, on the fringe of the Amazon basin, in Guaviare Department, Republic of Colombia. They are nomadic hunter-gatherers with seasonal nomadic patterns and in addition they practice a shifting...
- Ocaína
- Piapoco
- PiaroaPiaroaThe Piaroa are an indigenous American ethnic group living along the banks of the Orinoco River and its tributaries in present day Venezuela, and in a few scattered locations elsewhere in Venezuela and in Colombia...
- Piratapuyo
- Pitsamira
- Puinave
- SálibaSalibaThe Saliba is a predominantly Christian family name used in Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Iraq...
- SionaSiona peopleThe Siona people are an indigenous ethnic group living in the Ecuadorian Amazon or Oriente , and in Colombia...
- SirianoSirianoSiriano are a Tucanoan people indigenous to Colombia and Brazil. Their total population is estimated at 347 with most living in Colombia. Their culturally exogamous system means that glossologically, speakers are identified by the first language of their father.-Print References:*Ibáñez Fonseca,...
- Taiwano
- Tanimuka
- Tariano
- Tatuyo
- Tikuna
- Tukano
- TuyucaTuyucaTuyuca is an Eastern Tucanoan language spoken by the Tuyuca people...
- Wounaan
- Wanano
- WayuúWayuuWayuu is an Amerindian ethnic group of the La Guajira Peninsula in northern Colombia and northwest Venezuela. They are part of the Maipurean language family.- Geography :...
- Witoto/Huitoto/Uitoto
- YaguaYaguaThe Yagua are a people in northeastern Peru numbering approximately 3,000 to 4,000. Currently, they live near the Amazon, Napo, Putumayo and Yavari Rivers and their tributaries. Ethnographic descriptions of the Yagua are found in Fejos and P. Powlison . The history and migrations of the Yagua...
- Yarigui
- Yukuna
- YukpaYukpaYukpa is an Amerindian ethnic group that inhabits the northeastern part of the Cesar Department in northern Colombia by the Serrania del Perija bordering Venezuela. Their territory covers the eastern areas of the municipalities of Robles La Paz, Codazzi and Becerril in Resguardos named Socorpa,...
/Yuko - Yuri people
- Yurutí
- ZenúZenúThe Zenú or Sinú are an Amerindian tribe in Colombia whose ancestral territory comprises the valleys of the Sinu and San Jorge rivers as well as the coast of the Caribbean around the Gulf of Morrosquillo...
Since 1990
Quintín LameQuintín Lame
Manuel Quintín Lame Chantre was an Colombian indigenous rebel from the early 20th century who tried to conform an independent indigenous republic....
, an indigenous guerrilla group from Cauca
Cauca Department
Cauca is a Department of Colombia. Located in the south-western part of the country, facing the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Valle del Cauca Department to the north, Tolima Department to the northeast, Huila Department to the east and the Nariño Department to the south, covering a total area of...
, demobilized in 1990, joined a peaceful political process that lead to a recognition of cultural, social, and economic rights in the 1991 Colombian Constitution. The 1991 Colombian Constitution, International Labor Organization Convention 169
Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989
Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 is an International Labour Organization Convention, also known as ILO-convention 169, or C169. It is the major binding international convention concerning indigenous peoples, and a forerunner of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.It...
, and Colombian national law 21 all protect the cultural and territorial rights of indigenous people
Indigenous rights
Indigenous rights are those rights that exist in recognition of the specific condition of the indigenous peoples. This includes not only the most basic human rights of physical survival and integrity, but also the preservation of their land, language, religion and other elements of cultural...
.
On December 16, 1991, at least 40 indigenous men, women, and children from the Nasa tribe were massacred in the Huella community in northern Cauca by a bloc of the AUC
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia
The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia was created as an umbrella organization of regional far-right...
paramilitary organization. The Fiscalia, Colombia’s version of the Chief Prosecutor, former Colombian President Ernesto Samper
Ernesto Samper
Ernesto Samper Pizano is a Colombian politician. He served as the President of Colombia from August 7, 1994 to August 7, 1998, representing the Liberal Party. He was involved in the 8000 process scandal, which takes its name from the folio number assigned to it by the chief prosecutor's office...
, and the Inter-American Court for Human Rights have all denounced state involvement with the atrocities.
3,000 Nasa were displaced from the area by the AUC in 2001.
Since 2005, CRIC and other indigenous communities have engaged in a civil resistance and land recuperation project that they call “Liberar la Madre Tierra”, or “Liberate Mother Earth”, to reclaim and recuperate the traditional lands that have slowly been taken from them ever since the time of the Spanish conquistadores.
An indigenous forum in 2006 was also repressed by state security forces using live ammunition. On November 27, 2007, four indigenous community members were seriously wounded when National Police and other men wearing civilian clothing fired on them with tear gas and pistols.
According the ONIC, more than 1200 indigenous have been murdered since 2002, and thousand have been displaced.
The Permanent People’s Tribunal of Colombia issued a statement in July 2008 warning of “the imminent danger of physical and cultural extinction faced by 28 indigenous groups,” in Colombia. The tribunal charges the Colombian government, armed actors, and transnational corporations with “the deployment of strategies that have the objective of expelling indigenous peoples from areas of economic interest…[and]…to facilitate the exploitation of these areas…by transnational corporations,” charges that the tribunal says amount to genocide.
On October 2008, 12,000 indigenous Colombians marched onto the Pan-American highway
Pan-American Highway
The Pan-American Highway is a network of roads measuring about in total length. Except for an rainforest break, called the Darién Gap, the road links the mainland nations of the Americas in a connected highway system. According to Guinness World Records, the Pan-American Highway is the world's...
in Cauca to call for more land and the respect of life rights. Colombian President Álvaro Uribe
Álvaro Uribe
Alvaro Uribe Vélez was the 58th President of Colombia, from 2002 to 2010. In August 2010 he was appointed Vice-chairman of the UN panel investigating the Gaza flotilla raid....
refuse to talk to them, accusing FARC of having infiltrated the protest.
See also
- Spanish conquest of the Chibchan NationsSpanish conquest of the Chibchan NationsSpanish conquest of the Chibchan Nations refers to the conquest by the Spanish monarchy of the Chibchan speaking nations, mainly the Muiscas and Taironas that inhabited present day Colombia, beginning the Spanish colonization of the Americas....
- Indigenous peoples of the AmericasIndigenous peoples of the AmericasThe 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...
- National Indigenous Organization of ColombiaNational Indigenous Organization of ColombiaThe National Indigenous Organization of Colombia is an organization representing the indigenous peoples of Colombia, who comprise some 800,000 people or approximately 2% of the population...
(ONIC) - Colombian mythology
- Archaeological sites in ColombiaArchaeological sites in ColombiaArchaeological sites in Colombia are numerous and diverse, including findings and archaeological excavations that have taken place in the area now covered by the Republic of Colombia...