The Barí, sometimes also called Motilon-Bari, are an

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

who live in the

Catatumbo River The Catatumbo River ( es, Río Catatumbo) is a river rising in northern Colombia, flowing into Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. The Catatumbo River is approximately long. It forms a part of the international boundary between the two countries. The ...

basin in

Norte de Santander Department North Santander (Spanish: Norte de Santander) () is a departments of Colombia, department of Northeastern Colombia. It is in the north of the country, bordering Venezuela. Its capital is Cúcuta, one of the country's major cities. North Santan ...

in Colombia in South America and who speak the

Barí language Barí is a Chibchan language spoken in Northwestern South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at t ...

. They are descendants of the

Tairona Tairona (or Tayrona) was a Pre-Columbian culture of Colombia, which consisted in a group of chiefdoms in the region of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in present-day Cesar, Magdalena and La Guajira Departments of Colombia, South America, which g ...

culture concentrated in northeastern Colombia and western Venezuela.

Name

Although the Barí and

Yukpa Yukpa is an Amerindian ethnic group that inhabits the northeastern part of the Cesar Department in northern Colombia by the Serranía del Perijá bordering Venezuela. Their territory covers the eastern areas of the municipalities of Robles La Pa ...

peoples are commonly referred to as "Motilones," this is not how they refer to themselves. "Motilones" means "shaved heads" in Spanish, and is how Spanish-speaking Colombians and Venezuelans refer to them.

History

In the 16th century,

Alonso de Ojeda Alonso de Ojeda (; c. 1466 – c. 1515) was a Spanish explorer, governor and conquistador. He travelled through modern-day Guyana, Venezuela, Trinidad, Tobago, Curaçao, Aruba and Colombia. He navigated with Amerigo Vespucci who is famous ...

of Spain sailed to South Caribbean coasts and reached the

Maracaibo Basin The Maracaibo Basin, also known as Lake Maracaibo natural region, Lake Maracaibo depression or Lake Maracaibo Lowlands, is a foreland basin and one of the eight natural regions of Venezuela, found in the northwestern corner of Venezuela in South A ...

. The Spaniards believed that the area's frequent lightning strikes turned stone into gold, and so they began settling the region extensively. The Barí fought the Spaniards back from their territory, defeating five royal expeditions sent to pacify the Indians. It was the Spaniards who first named the Barí "Motilones," or "people of the short hair." In 1530

Ambrosius Ehinger Ambrosius Ehinger, also (Ambrosio Alfínger in Spanish) Dalfinger, Thalfinger, (ca. 1500 in Thalfingen near Ulm – 31 May 1533 near Chinácota in modern-day Colombia) was a German conquistador and the first governor of the Welser concessi ...

, commissioned by German banker family (

Welser Welser was a Germans, German banking and merchant family, originally a patrician (post-Roman Europe), patrician family based in Augsburg and Nuremberg, that rose to great prominence in international high finance in the 16th century as bankers t ...

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...

), looted a large amount of gold from the

Kalina people The Kalina, also known as the Caribs or mainland Caribs and by several other names, are an indigenous people native to the northern coastal areas of South America. Today, the Kalina live largely in villages on the rivers and coasts of Venezuela, ...

on the western coast of South America, and attempted to transport the gold over the Bobalí Mountains. Barí men ambushed and destroyed the expedition, and the gold was lost, never to be found again. In the 20th century, oil was discovered in Barí territory, and as oil companies moved in, their land has been subjected to oil drilling from 1913 to 1926 and from 1996 to 2001. The first peaceful contact that was made with the Bari was by Roberto Lizarralde in 1960. Lizarralde conducted research among the Bari for 44 years and his research was carried on by his son, Manuel Lizarralde. The focus of their research has been on the ethnobotany of the Bari, who possess a vast knowledge of the biodiversity in Amazonia and use 80% of the plants around them. They have been the subject of the French ethnologist

Robert Jaulin Robert Jaulin (7 March 1928, Le Cannet, Alpes-Maritimes – 22 November 1996, Grosrouvre) was a French ethnologist. After several journeys to Chad, between 1954 and 1959, among the Sara people, he published in 1967 ''La Mort Sara'' (The Sara ...

, and they were among the peoples depicted in the 1921 documentary '' Blandt Syd-Amerikas urskovsindianere'' (Among the Primeval Forest Indians of South America). The missionary

Bruce Olson Bruce Olson (born November 10, 1941) is a Scandinavian American Christian missionary best known for his work in bringing Christianity to the Barí people of Colombia and Venezuela. Olson's 1973 autobiographical book '' Bruchko'' has sold more t ...

relates in his book, ''Bruchko'', that he began living with the Bari in 1962, and he says that he became the "blood brother" of a chieftain's son. According to Olson, he is part of what he refers to as the "Motilone Miracle", which involves indigenously run schools, literacy programs, medical clinics, as well as an effort of the Motilone Bari to introduce Christianity to surrounding tribes. Since the initial contact in 1650, Bari land has been reduced to 7% of its original mass and the Bari have shifted their production to the gardening of cash crops in order to acquire Western goods which are becoming increasingly integrated into their culture.

Economy

The Barí people's chief economic activity is the growing of

Theobroma cacao ''Theobroma cacao'', also called the cacao tree and the cocoa tree, is a small ( tall) evergreen tree in the family Malvaceae. Its seeds, cocoa beans, are used to make chocolate liquor, cocoa solids, cocoa butter and chocolate. The largest pro ...

, the plant from which

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...

is made. They export the cacao and use the proceeds to help maintain their network of schools, community centers, and health clinics, all started after large numbers of the Barí (notably the chieftain, "Bobby") converted to Christianity, which resulted in a significant cultural shift.

Language

The Barí speak the

, part of the Chibchan language family.

Beliefs

Current estimates are that 70% of the Barí people are Christians.http://www.joshuaproject.net/peopctry.php?rop3=106823&rog3=VE – Joshua project population estimates

References

Bibliography

Bruchko
– updated edition of the 1973 autobiography by Bruce Olson (link points to Amazon.com)
Bruchko and the Motilone Miracle
– 2006 sequel to ''Bruchko'' by Bruce Olson and James L. Lund (link points to Amazon.com)
Bruce Olson: Missionary or American Colonizer?
– 1981 book by Andres kung, examining Olson's career (link points to Amazon.com)
The Jungle is Still His Home
– 2007 interview in ''Charisma'' magazine

External links

Joshua Project's statistics about the Bari people

* ttp://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/106/Colombia.html Article about the Motilone people's struggle against oil companies in Colombia {{DEFAULTSORT:Motilone Bari Indigenous peoples in Colombia Indigenous peoples in Venezuela Circum-Caribbean tribes Santa Marta