http://indigenouspeople.net/Peru/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_peoples_in_Peru
Wari culture sculpture, c. 600–1000 CE, wood with shell-and-stone inlay and silver, Kimbell Art Museum
Indigenous peoples in Peru, or Native Peruvians, comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who have inhabited the country of Peru‘s territory since before its discovery by Europeans around 1500. Indigenous cultures developed here for thousands of years. The first Spanish explorers called the indigenous peoples of the Americas indios, or “Indians,” as they had been hoping to find the East Indies of Asia. The term is still used today, although it is sometimes thought to have a derogatory connotation.
Dancers at Quyllurit’i, an indigenous festival in Peru
In 2017, the 5,972,606 Indigenous peoples formed about 26% of the total population of Peru.
At the time of the Spanish invasion, the indigenous peoples of the rain forest of the Amazon basin to the east of the Andes were mostly semi-nomadic tribes; they subsisted on hunting, fishing, gathering, and migrant agriculture. Those peoples living in the Andes and to the west were dominated by the Inca Empire, who had a complex, hierarchical civilization. It developed many cities, building major temples and monuments with techniques of highly skilled stonemasonry.
INDIGENOUS MOUNTAIN PEOPLE OF PERU
Many of the estimated 2000 nations and tribes present in 1500 died out as a consequence of the Spanish colonization of the Americas, largely because of exposure to new Eurasian infectious diseases endemic among the colonists, to which they had no acquired immunity.
Many survivors had unions with Spanish and their descendants were gradually assimilated into the general mestizo (“mixed race”) Peruvian population. All of the Peruvian indigenous groups, such as the Urarina, and even those who live isolated in the most remote areas of the Amazon rainforest, such as the Matsés, Matis, and Korubo, have changed their ways of life to some extent under the influence of European-Peruvian culture. They have adopted the use of firearms and other manufactured items, and trade goods at a remove from mainstream Peruvian society. These indigenous groups maintain cultural identities and practices that keep them distinct from majority Hispano-Peruvian society.
Quechua people in Conchucos District, Peru
According to the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics, out of a 31,237,385 population, the Indigenous people in Peru represent about 25.7%. Of those, 95.8% are Andean and 3.3% from the Amazon. Other sources indicate that the Indigenous people comprise 31% of the total population.
| Population by region, 2017 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Region | Percent | |
 | Apurímac | 84.1% |
 | Ayacucho | 81.2% |
 | Huancavelica | 80.8% |
 | Cusco | 74.7% |
 | Puno | 57.0% |
 | Huánuco | 42.9% |
 | Pasco | 37.7% |
 | Junín | 34.9% |
 | Madre de Dios | 34.5% |
 | Ancash | 34.0% |
| Arequipa | 31.1% | |
 | Lima | 17.5% |
| Lima Province | 16.3% | |
 | Moquegua | 14.6% |
 | Ica | 14.3% |
 | Callao | 10.2% |
 | Tacna | 7.3% |
 | Cajamarca | 6.2% |
 | San Martín | 5.1% |
 | Ucayali | 5.0% |
 | Lambayeque | 4.2% |
 | La Libertad | 2.9% |
 | Amazonas | 2.9% |
 | Piura | 2.2% |
 | Tumbes | 1.9% |
 | Loreto | 1.4% |
In the Amazonian region, there more than 65 ethnic groups classified into 16 language families. After Brazil in South America and New Guinea in the Pacific Ocean, Peru is believed to have the highest number of uncontacted tribes in the world.
RIGHTS AT RISK: THE FIGHT FOR TRUE COMMUNITY CONSULTATION CONTINUES IN PERU
Is the newly elected Peruvian government turning its back on indigenous peoples’ land rights and putting profits before people? All the signs suggest they are. Last week, Peru’s new Minister for Culture publicly claimed that prior consultation—a right of indigenous peoples enshrined in Peru’s national law—was merely a mechanism to generate “trust” with indigenous peoples and create “stability” for private investment. Those who follow Oxfam’s work in Peru know that this is a far cry from what the country’s landmark rule, specifying that consultations should aim to secure indigenous peoples’ prior agreement or consent for projects like mining, oil, gas and forestry actually requires. Fundamentally, it is a matter of human rights, of dignity, and of justice.
PERU: CULTURE MINISTRY’S INVESTMENT TO FOCUS ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Peru promotes use of indigenous names in public records
Indigenous Peruvians often have one name at home and another, usually Spanish, for official purposes. Now registrars are being urged to embrace native languages.
There are currently reported to be 92 separate and distinct languages spoken in Peru (Ethnologue: Languages of the World).
It’s interesting to note that although the common language of Peru is Spanish, legally all indigenous languages are recognized as official languages now by the Peruvian government.
The sheer numbers, at first glance, may be surprising. However, compared to Mexico, for example (291 distinct languages), this is not an unusually large number of indigenous tribes, considering the remoteness of many of Peru’s rain forest and cloud forest areas.
With around 33 million people, Peru is the fourth most populous nation in South America. Around 45 percent of the citizenry is indigenous, the second highest percentage in the western hemisphere, after Bolivia.
The most numerous indigenous population, however, is to be found in the Andes mountains, amongst the Quechua-speaking people who trace their origins to the Inca – and other peoples who lived in the Andes at the time of the Spanish Conquest.
Quechua is the native tongue of more than three million Peruvians, mostly in the central and northern Andes. The Quechua people are the largest indigenous group in South America today. Most Quechua communities are in the high Andes and are focused on farming. The Quechua are known worldwide for their beautifully intricate textile arts, and for their ability to thrive in high-altitude environments.
Peru is home to 51 indigenous communities, all of whom have a unique culture and way of life. Among the 31 million people who live in Peru, about 80% identify as either mestizo (a person of combined indigenous and European descent) or indigenous. From the high Andes to the jungles of the Peruvian Amazon, there are many thriving indigenous people of Peru to get to know.
The Aymara people also live in the Andes. They make their home in the Altiplano, which is a plateaued and windy region of the mountains. Like the Quechua, the Aymara have been around since long before the Inca empire. Today many Aymara people, as well as the Quechua, have spiritual practices that combine facets of traditional indigenous beliefs and Catholic beliefs brought over by the Spanish.
Many Aymara make their living as farmers and grow potatoes, quinoa, corn, and other crops. Many others work as herders of llama and alpaca. They mainly speak the Aymara language.
How Peru Excludes Indigenous Voices in Its Quest to Develop the Amazon
Most people living in Peru’s Amazon regions are indigenous, a group of people who remain excluded and discriminated against. According to one former president, indigenous people are an obstacle to development, “artificial communities that own 200,000 hectares on paper but only farm 10,000 hectares while the rest is idle property.”
The Uncontacted Indians of Peru
There are at least 20 uncontacted tribes living in the Peruvian Amazon, all face catastrophe unless their land is protected.
The greatest threats to Peru’s uncontacted Indians are oil workers and illegal loggers.
More than 70% of the Peruvian Amazon has been leased by the government to oil companies. Much of this includes regions inhabited by uncontacted tribes.
Oil exploration is particularly dangerous to the Indians because it opens up previously remote areas to other outsiders, such as loggers and colonists. They use the roads and paths made by the exploration teams to enter.
Elders in Peruvian Andes Help Interpret Climate Changes
“Before, things happened at the right time. Now, strange things are going on with the climate.” This is the kind of comment that is heard frequently in dozens of rural communities throughout the departments (provinces) of Puno, Cuzco and Apurímac in the country’s southern Andean highlands.
The Peruvian Government was denounced in court by the National Organization of Andean and Amazonian Indigenous Women of Peru (Onamiap) “for putting at risk the indigenous peoples during the pandemic” of the covid-19, which already leaves more than 292.000 cases and 10.000 deceased in the Andean country.
“We are demanding and demanding that indigenous peoples and women be considered as subjects of law, that they do not take us as second or third category people,” Onamiap president Melania Canales Poma told EFE, explaining the action of amparo filed before the Peruvian Judiciary.
Every year, since 1783 in the Sinakara Valley at the foot of Mt Ausagante, Peru, the Qoyllur Rit’i, or ‘Snow and Star’ festival draws tens of thousands of pilgrims from across the Peruvian Andes and beyond to what is the biggest religious gathering of its kind. The event merged into a mosaic of indigenous, pagan and catholic worship when the image of Jesus appeared on a boulder after the death of a young shepherd in 1780. After hundreds of years, the Qoyllur Rit’i is under threat, and its meaning is changing. The warmer climate in the region has melted much of the sacred Qolqepunku’s glaciers where the festival’s rituals take place. Where there once stood ice blocks believed to hold special healing properties now only reside rocky slopes, as ice sheets retreat up into the mountain. In a study by the Peruvian government, it found that it’s country’s glaciers had shrunk by more than 20 per cent over a 30 year period. It has been predicted by The National Commission on Climate Change that Peru could lose all its glaciers below 18,000 feet and that within 40 years, they may all be gone.
The Indigenous peoples of Peru, or Native Peruvians, comprise a large number of ethnic groups who inhabit territory in present-day Peru. Indigenous cultures developed here for thousands of years before the arrival of the Spanish in 1532.
In 2017, the 5,972,606 Indigenous peoples formed about 26% of the total population of Peru.[1] At the time of the Spanish arrival, the Indigenous peoples of the rain forest of the Amazon basin to the east of the Andes were mostly semi-nomadic tribes; they subsisted on hunting, fishing, gathering and slash and burn agriculture. Those peoples living in the Andes and to the west were dominated by the Inca Empire, who had a complex, hierarchical civilization. It developed many cities, building major temples and monuments with techniques of highly skilled stonemasonry.
Many of the estimated 2000 nations and tribes present in 1500 died out as a consequence of the expansion and consolidation of the Inca Empire and its successor after 1533, the Spanish empire. In the 21st century, the mixed-race mestizos are the largest component of the Peruvian population.
With the arrival of the Spanish, many Natives perished due to Eurasian infectious diseases among the foreigners, to which they had acquired no immunity.
Machu Picchu was built in the classical Inca style, with polished dry-stone walls. Its three primary structures are the Intihuatana, the Temple of the Sun, and the Room of the Three Windows. Most of the outlying buildings have been reconstructed in order to give visitors a better idea of how they originally appeared. By 1976, 30% of Machu Picchu had been restored and restoration continues.
Indigenous Peoples Literature 
