The Sutagao are 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 ...

-speakingIndios Sutagaos
/ref> indigenous people from the region of

Fusagasugá Fusagasugá (; ) or Fusa is a town and municipality in the Departments of Colombia, department of Cundinamarca Department, Cundinamarca, in central Colombia. It is located in the warm valley between the rivers Cuja River, Cuja and Panches, a centr ...

Bogotá savanna The Bogotá savanna is a montane savanna, located in the southwestern part of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the center of Colombia. The Bogotá savanna has an extent of and an average altitude of . The savanna is situated in the Eastern Range ...

, Cundinamarca,

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 ...

. Knowledge about the Sutagao has been provided by

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...

Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita (1624, Bogotá – March 29, 1688) was a Spanish Neogranadine Roman Catholic prelate who served as the Bishop of Panamá (1676–1688) ''(in Latin)'' and the Bishop of Santa Marta (1668–1676).Arzobispo de Pa ...

.Los Sutagaos
/ref>

Etymology

The name Sutagao is derived from the Chibcha words ''Su(t)á''; "Sun" and ''gao''; "son"; "Sons of the Sun".

Municipalities belonging to Sutagao territories

The Sutagao was a relatively small indigenous group that lived between the

Sumapaz Páramo Sumapaz Páramo (Spanish: ''Páramo de Sumapaz'' - meaning "Utterly peaceful moorland" ) is a large páramo ecosystem located in the Altiplano Cundiboyacense mountain range, considered the largest páramo ecosystem in the world. It was de ...

and the Pasca River.

History

Before the

Spanish conquest The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its predece ...

, the Sutagao were in conflict with the Muisca to the northeast. ''

Zipa When the Spanish arrived in the central Colombian highlands, the region was organized into the Muisca Confederation, which had two rulers; the ''zipa'' was the ruler of the southern part and based in Muyquytá. The ''hoa'' was the ruler of the n ...

Saguamanchica Saguamanchica (died Chocontá, 1490) was the second ruler (''zipa'') of Muyquytá, as of 1470. His ''zaque'' enemy ruling over the northern area of the Muisca territory was Michuá. Alternative spellings of his name are Sacuan Machica, Saguanma ...

conquered the Sutagao around 1470 when the ''

cacique A ''cacique'' (Latin American ; ; feminine form: ''cacica'') was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, the indigenous inhabitants at European contact of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The term is a Spa ...

'' of the Sutagao lost the

Battle of Pasca The Battle of Pasca was fought between the southern Muisca Confederation, led by their zipa (ruler), Saguamanchica, and an alliance between the Panche and the Sutagao, led by the ''Cacique'' of Fusagasugá. The battle took place 1470 in the ...

Conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...

Hernán Pérez de Quesada Hernán Pérez de Quesada, sometimes spelled as Quezada, (c. 1515 – 1544) was a Spanish conquistador. Second in command of the army of his elder brother, Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, Hernán was part of the first European expedition towar ...

, brother of

Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada y Rivera, also spelled as Ximénez and De Quezada, (;1496 16 February 1579) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador in northern South America, territories currently known as Colombia. He explored the territory named ...

submitted the Sutagao to the new rule of the

New Kingdom of Granada The New Kingdom of Granada ( es, Nuevo Reino de Granada), or Kingdom of the New Granada, was the name given to a group of 16th-century Spanish colonial provinces in northern South America governed by the president of the Royal Audience of Santa ...

. The Sutagao inhabited the region until a new town was founded by Bernardino Albornoz between 5 and 13 February in 1592. During the visit of Miguel de Ibarra there were 759 indigenous people residing in

.
When Aróstequi arrived in February 1760, the indigenous population had dwindled to 85, and there were 644 new settlers divided among 109 families.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sutagao people Andean civilizations Indigenous peoples in Colombia Colombian culture

Etymology

Municipalities belonging to Sutagao territories

History

See also

References