"In the Andes, Nurturance is at the Very Heart of Life"

(Land of the Inkas)

The indigenous peoples (aboriginal peoples) of South America are found from the Isthmus of Panama to Tierra del Fuego. An estimated 30 million people were living there when the Europeans arrived. In the Andean region extensive remains show developed cultures at Chav’n de Hu‡ntar and among the Paracas in Peru. The Mochica, Chimu, and Nazca in Peru, the Chibcha and Aymara of the Andes, and the Araucanos and Mapuche of Chile had socially complex pre-Columbian cultures, surpassed only by the Inca. Descendants of these peoples live today in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, northwestern Argentina, and Chile. Quechua, spoken by the Inca, is the most widely spoken language in South America. Since the Spanish conquest indigenous peoples have been used as laborers, poorly paid and lacking political representation; these conditions of semiservitude are changing slowly. Some, notably the Inca, play a significant role in the national culture; but many live in small, peripheral groups. A few descendants of the Arawaks and Caribs live in Venezuela, the Guianas, and Northern Brazil. The Guaran’ in Brazil are few and scattered, but in Paraguay their language is widely spoken and, like Quechua in Bolivia, is the official language of the country. Among tropical forest groups are the J’varo of Ecuador and Yanomami of Brazil and Venezuela. The Colorados of Western Ecuador and the Puelches and Tehuelches, hunters of Patagonia, are virtually extinct. A dwindling number of Fuegians, so called for their campsites at Tierra del Fuego, live by hunting and fishing. Sadly, the indigenous peoples of South America continue to be assimilated into white-dominated national cultures as their traditional ways of life and homelands are being destroyed by over-population growth and industrial development.

Otavalo (Ecuador)

Mapuche (Chile/Argentina)	An Ancient Incan Prophecy	Mapuche (Chile/Argentina)
	"One day the great sacred birds of the North and the South will fly together." Willaru Huayata Incan "Chasqui" (messenger) "When the eagle of the North and the Condor of the South fly together, the Earth will awaken. The eagles of the North cannot be free without the condors of the South. Now it is happening. Now is the time."
Quechua (Bolivia/Peru/Ecuador)

Other South American Sites

Cueva de las Manos Gauchos

Images

Misterioso y Leyendas de la Patagonia

Museo Paleontologico Egidio Feruglio

My Grandfather

El Rastro mas Antiguo de la Espiritualidad Humana

Sur del Sur

Sacred Mountain

"Alguno crey que el arbol aborigen estaba muerto... aunque lo hacharon, este tronco tiene ra’ces fuertes, y aqu’ estamos nosotros, que somos sus brotes..." (Ernesto Quillo - Tapiete) "La lucha no termina. Tenemos un Dios tan grande que nos ayudar a alcanzar el gran objetivo: QUE LA LEY SE CUMPLA." (Timoteo Segundo - Toba) Comunidades Aborigenes Abipones Chiriguanos Diaguitas Guaran’es Huarpes Kollas Mocov’es Neuquin Onas Pehuenche Pilaga Querand’ Tehuelches Tobas Wichi

Indigenous Peoples of Argentina

Chilean Dance 1

Chilean Dance 2

Return to Indigenous Peoples' Literature