Indigenous Peoples of Colombia

http://www.indigenouspeople.net/Colombia/

Tribes and Languages of Colombia

This is an index to the Native American language and cultural information on our website pertaining to Colombian Indian tribes. Some pages contain more information than others. If you belong to an indigenous tribe from Colombia that is not currently listed on this page and you would like to see it here, please contact us about how to contribute information to our site. 

The Unique Struggle Indigenous Communities in Colombia Face

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http://www.native-languages.org/colombia.htm

The original inhabitants of the area that is now Colombia include:

The Achuagua Indians The Amarizana Indians The Andoque Indians The Arhuaco Indians The Awa Indians The Baniva Indians The Barasana Indians The Bari Indians The Bora Indians The Cabiyari Indians The Cacua Indians The Camsa Indians The Carapana Indians The Carare Indians The Carijona Indians The Carutana Indians The Catio Indians The Chimila Indians The Coconuco Indians The Cofan Indians The Coreguaje Indians The Coyaima Indians The Cubeo Indians

The Cuiba Indians The Curripaco Indians The Desano Indians The Embera Indians The Guahibo Indians The Guajiro Indians (Wayuu) The Guambiano Indians The Guanano Indians The Guayabero Indians The Inga/Quichua Indians The Juruti Indians The Kogui Indians The Kuna Indians The Macuna Indians The Maipure Indians The Muellama Indians The Muinane Indians The Opon Indians

The Paez Indians The Piapoco Indians The Piaroa Indians The Pijao Indians The Piratapuyo Indians The Puinave Indians The Retuara Indians The Saliba Indians The Sinsiga Indians The Siona Indians The Siriano Indians The Tariano Indians The Tatuyo Indians The Telembi Indians The Ticuna Indians The Totoro Indians The Tucano Indians The Tunebo Indians The Tuyuca Indians The Waimaha Indians The Waunana Indians The Wiwa Indians (Malayo) The Witoto Indians The Yucuna Indians The Yurumangui Indians The Yukpa Indians

Recommended books about Colombia’s Native Americans:

Indians of Colombia: Experience and cognition: Anthropology book about the Colombian Indian tribes. The Sacred Mountain of Colombia’s Kogi Indians: Book about the religion of the Kogui tribe of Colombia.

Other resources about American Indian language, history, culture and society in Colombia:

Colombia Languages:

Online resources on several indigenous Colombian languages. Colombia’s Indigenous People:

Articles and timeline about Colombian Indians. Indigenous Peoples in Colombia:

Wikipedia article overviewing the Indian tribes of Colombia. Native American Nations in Northern South America:

Information and photographs of tribes in this region.

Photos

Indigenous Guard in Colombia wins award

The Indigenous Guard of Cauca in Colombia has received a prestigious international human rights award.

The group, Kiwe Thegnas (Defenders of Life and Territory), were granted the award in a virtual ceremony. The award is given annually by the Irish organization Front Line Defenders. Kiwe Thegnas won for the Americas region. Front Line Defenders is a strategic ally of PAX in the protection of human rights defenders in Colombia. Joris van de Sandt, PAX coordinator for Latin America: “We congratulate the Guard on receiving this award and celebrate with them. We know the risks they take for the protection of their community.”

How disputed oil deals push native Colombian peoples closer to extinction

The Colombian government’s granting of oil titles in Colombia’s Amazon region allegedly increases the threat of extinction of indigenous peoples in the region. According to a study, the government has granted titles for oil exploration and drilling that overlap 81 indigenous reservations in the Amazon region, according to a study. According to Cruz, an elder of the the local Awa people, multiple of the 15 peoples that inhabit just the Putumayo province are already threatened to go extinct. The Putumayo indigenous peoples have been on a “minga,” a protest mobilization, for months and have clashed with riot police on multiple occasions. Meetings agreed with the government of President Ivan Duque were simply not attended by representatives from the capital Bogota from where the mining titles are granted.

Carnival of Forgiveness

Clestrinye (“Carnaval del Perdón”) is an ancient celebration kept for centuries in the Valley of Sibundoy in Putumayo (the Amazonian department of Colombia), a home to two closely allied indigenous groups, the Inga and Kamentsá. The annual carnival extends over several days with Tuesday (before Ash Wednesday) as a day of the public procession when Indians from the whole area gather and parade from the countryside to the center of the Sibundoy town. Reaching the plaza, they enter the church for the festive Mass and dance, eat and drink in the cabildo (the tribal council office) afterwards, till the morning next day. Although the ritual has indigenous origins, the Catholic religion elements (carrying the Saint Mary statues) have been introduced and merged with the shamanistic tradition (with the Yagé ritual at the center). Celebrating the collaboration, peace and unity between tribes, the Inga and Kamentsá people believe that anyone who offended anyone may ask for forgiveness this day and all of them should grant pardons.

COLOMBIA INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

With some 87 ethnic groups and 65 different languages, Colombia is the second most ethnically diverse country in the Americas, after Brazil. Colombia’s indigenous population stands at around 1.45 million, or about 3.5% of the total population. Approximately one-third of the country’s land is owned by ethnic groups. The Amazon region of Colombia, though sparsely populated, is home to over 70 different indigenous ethnic groups. In the Guajira Peninsula in northern Colombia, on the border with Venezuela, are the Wayuu people–the “people of the sun, sand and wind.” The Wayuu speak Wayuunaiki and are among the biggest indigenous groups in Colombia. Because they never encountered Spanish settlers, Wayuu culture remains largely intact. One of the most significant aspects of the Wayuu is the art of weaving colorful.

For the indigenous peoples living on the steep slopes of Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, sustaining the balance of the spiritual and ecological world is their sacred task. They call themselves the Elder Brothers, the guardians of the Earth, and the rest of modern civilization are the Younger Brothers, whose exploitative practices are destroying the mountain’s ecosystem and, by extension, the rest of the planet. The four indigenous groups of this region—the Kogi, Wiwa, Arhuaco and Kankuamo—believe the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is the beating heart of the world: what happens here happens everywhere, and when its rivers run dry, its ice caps melt and its endemic species disappear, so do the rest of the world’s. They maintain their deep commitment to restoring equilibrium to the Earth through daily meditations, ritual practices and mental discipline, and they have continued this vigilance even as the Younger Brothers have encroached into the mountain with logging, mineral extraction, commercial plantations and drug-crop cultivation that placed them at the center of violence between warring factions in Colombia’s protracted civil war.

Other indigenous groups, such as the Quimbayas, the Muiscas and the Kalima, also known as Caribs, once numbered some 2 million, but have largely disappeared. The Muiscas, who spoke Chibcha, lived mainly in the present departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá, and were well known for their political organizing. Their society was based on an economy featuring agriculture, crafts and trade. The four existing indigenous tribes of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta are the remnants of a sophisticated pre-Hispanic civilization known as the Tayrona. When the first Spaniards set foot in Colombia in the 16th century, they found a civilization that practiced sustainable farming through crop rotation and vertical ecology, built terraced drainage systems that minimized erosion, and produced exceptional gold and pottery work. But the conquistadores drove the tribes high up into the mountain, where they tried to protect their culture through isolation. The Kogi were able to maintain the most traditional culture while the Wiwa and Arhuaco experienced different levels of acculturation. The Kankuamo, who had all but disappeared, are now working to recover their language and culture. Estimates for the total number of native people living in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta range between 35,000 and 51,000.

Though the tribes speak different languages, they have nevertheless retained a common spiritual tradition. According to this tradition, when the great Mother created the world, she spun a spindle, and the threads that unspooled crossed to form the four Tayrona peoples and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta itself. Within the indigenous communities, every action and behavior is informed by what they call the “Law of Origin,” an ecological philosophy that governs their relationship to nature, animals, weather, bodies of water and the cycles of the planets and stars. The spiritual practices and ethical beliefs of the Tayrona revolve around their conception of aluna, which is the belief that all reality is created by thought, and that every object or being has both a physical reality and a spiritual essence, all originating in thought. The tribes’ highly trained ritual priests—the mamas—communicate in the aluna dimension through ritual and meditation. In their communion with the aluna world, the mamas focus on maintaining the ecological and spiritual equilibrium of the mountain. The presence of hunter/gatherers in Colombia dates back to at least 10.000 B.C. The archaeological site at San Agustin, Huila has the largest group of religious monuments and megalithic sculptures in South America. They were the work of an Andean civilization, which existed between the 1st and 8th centuries. It is considered to be the world´s largest necropolis and one of the most important archaeological sites in Latin America. At the time of the Spanish Conquest the indigenous population in Colombia is estimated to have been between 1.5 and 2 million. At that time the most advanced cultures were the Muiscas in the highlands near Bogotá and the Taironas in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.

Today here are more than 80 indigenous tribes in Colombia but they only represent 3% of the total population. Many of them depend on their artisan products, principally textiles and basketry, to provide income for their families. At the end of the colonial period (1820) it is estimated that the native population was still about 50% of the total. Guatavita Lake is believed to be the source of the legend of El Dorado, the mythical city with streets of gold, which the Spanish conquerors sought in vain. The sacred lake was the place where the leader of the Muisca Indians was covered in gold dust and went out on a raft into the middle of the lake, where he washed off the gold, while his followers threw their gold jewelry and artefacts into the water.

Colombia’s former president says COVID-19 shows the importance of listening to indigenous peoples on how we treat the planet Former President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos implores world leaders to listen to indigenous peoples, especially on the environment. The coronavirus pandemic is yet another global threat requiring us to reimagine our relationship with nature. As more leaders retreat from science and global collaboration, the wisdom of indigenous peoples can show us the way.

7 Indigenous Peoples of Colombia Who Have Often Gone Ignored

When talking about Colombian culture, historically, more attention has been given to the Spanish part of the country’s makeup. Very little is given to the various indigenous cultures who were there before the Spanish ever arrived, despite the fact that there are around 1.5 million indigenous people, from over 87 tribes, that make up about 3.5% of the total population. In an effort to learn more about Colombians – from all places and backgrounds – we are taking a look at seven different indigenous peoples who call Colombia home.

Achagua

Kogi

Muisca

Nukak

TEACHING NIALL FERGUSON A (COLOMBIAN) HISTORY LESSON

The Nukak indigenous people have suffered appallingly since first sustained contact, despite claims made by this historian.

Páez/Nasa

Wayuú

Zenú

Culture of the Wiwa, an Indigenous Colombian Tribe in the Sierra Nevada

The Wiwa tribe in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada mountains have lived harmoniously with the wildlife surrounding them for thousands of years. Rising approximately 5,000 meters out of Northern Colombia’s Caribbean shores, the misty, cloud-shrouded Sierra Nevada mountains have been the home to indigenous tribes for more than 2,000 years. As if unaffected by time, the Sierra’s indigenous tribes still live as their Tairona ancestors did centuries ago. Despite growing modernization and tourism in the area, the Wiwa community – the smallest of four tribes living in the Lost City today – show us how they strive to keep their ancient culture alive.

The end of the illusion for Indigenous Peoples in Colombia

The persecution and murder of Indigenous leaders that are currently being experienced in Colombia must be seen within this context and dynamic of longstanding exclusion and violence. According to the General Assessment of Human Rights Violations and Offences against Indigenous Peoples, some 9,148 Indigenous leaders were murdered over the 1985-2017 period for affirming their own cultural project: territorial defence, the exercise of autonomy, application of justice and defence of women’s and children’s rights in the face of armed groups.