The Kankuamo, Kankuaka, Kankui or Kankuané are an

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

people of

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

, living on the southern slopes of the

Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (English: ''Snow-Covered Mountain Range of Saint Martha'') is an isolated mountain range in northern Colombia, separate from the Andes range that runs through the north of the country. Reaching an elevation of ...

up until the north of the César

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

(

corregimiento ''Corregimiento'' (; ca, Corregiment, ) is a Spanish term used for country subdivisions for royal administrative purposes, ensuring districts were under crown control as opposed to local elites. A ''corregimiento'' was usually headed by a '' corr ...

s: Atánquez, Guatapurí, Chemesquemena,

Los Haticos Los Haticos is a village and corregimiento in the municipality of Valledupar within the Colombian Department of Cesar. The town lies on the steps of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the Colombian Caribbean region. Geography The corregimien ...

La Mina ''La Mina'' is an album by Italian singer Mina, distributed in 1975 back to back with album ''Minacantalucio''. Track listing Credits *Mina – vocals *Pino Presti – arranger/conductor in "Ti accetto come sei", "Quasi come musica (''A Song f ...

and Rio Seco). The Kankuamo people, estimated at around 15,000 individuals, speak Sánha, a dialect of the Atanque language of the

Chibcha The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan lan ...

family. Their laws are borne from nature and they consider the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the highest mountain range closest to the sea, as sacred. In their native tongue they call this ''Umunukunu''. Many Kankuamo, mostly merchants, do not speak their native language. Map of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

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Indigenous group of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

Traditionally, of the four indigenous groups of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the Kankuamo people are the least contacted by others, having developed strategies to survive away from the outside world. The Kankuamo people are characterized for their different way of dressing from the other peoples of the Sierra Nevada; the women wear two overlapping cloths, and the men wear short trousers and a hat of reed. Their living space is bordered by the Kogui, Wiwa and

Arhuaco The Arhuaco are an indigenous people of Colombia. They are Chibchan-speaking people and descendants of the Tairona culture, concentrated in northern Colombia in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Name The Arhuaco are also known as the Aruaco, Bi ...

. From the late 1980s to 2006 over 300 Kankuamo people were murdered during the

Colombian conflict The Colombian conflict ( es, link=no, Conflicto armado interno de Colombia) began on May 27, 1964, and is a low-intensity asymmetric war between the government of Colombia, far-right paramilitary groups, crime syndicates, and far-left gue ...

Economy

The economy of the Kankuamo is based on agriculture. The main products are

yuca ''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated a ...

ñame Yam is the common name for some plant species in the genus ''Dioscorea'' (family Dioscoreaceae) that form edible tubers. Yams are perennial herbaceous vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers in many temperate and tropica ...

pigeon pea The pigeon pea (''Cajanus cajan'') is a perennial legume from the family Fabaceae native to the Old World. The pigeon pea is widely cultivated in tropical and semitropical regions around the world, being commonly consumed in South Asia, Southeas ...

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...

coca Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. Coca is known worldwide for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine. The plant is grown as a cash crop in the Argentine Northwest, Bolivia, Al ...

leaves,

fique Fique is a natural fibre that grows in the leaves of plants in the genus ''Furcraea''. Common names include fique, cabuya, pita, penca, penco, maguey, cabui, chuchao and coquiza. History The Indigenous peoples of the Americas extracted and used ...

, arracacha and

starch Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human diets ...

References

External links

*
Website of the Kankuamo people
{{authority control Indigenous peoples in Colombia Cesar Department Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta