South America

 

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

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 Chavín de Huántar 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 Guaraní 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 Jívaro 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.

Tawantinsuyu - Andean Folklore
(Land of the Inkas)

 
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."
When Earth Is Stronger Than Gold
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."



 
Solidarity for Non-violent Resolutions in South America
 

"Alguno creyó que el arbol aborigen estaba muerto... aunque lo hacharon, este tronco tiene raíces fuertes, y aquí estamos nosotros, que somos sus brotes..." (Ernesto Quillo - Tapiete)

"La lucha no termina. Tenemos un Dios tan grande que nos ayudará a alcanzar el gran objetivo: QUE LA LEY SE CUMPLA."
(Timoteo Segundo - Toba)

Comunidades Aborigenes

Abipones
Araucanos Groupo
Aymara
Calimas
Chiriguanos
Diaguitas
Emberas
Guahibo
Guajiro
Guaraníes
Huarochirí
Huarpes
Kawésqar
Kollas
Kuna, Dulenega
Mapuche
Mocovíes
Los Mochicas
Neuquén
Onas
O'ona, Aona, Aoniks, Oens

Pehuenche
Pilaga

Querandí
Quimbayas
Saraguro
Tehuelches



Tobas
Tukanos
Wichi
Yaganes
Yanomami


Los Selknams

Yahganes

Indigenous Peoples of Argentina


Tekenikas

 

Los Yámanas

Los Alacalufes

Indigenous Peoples' Literature Return to Indigenous Peoples' Literature

Compiled by: Glenn Welker





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