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Tribes

Tribes and indigenous people of Venezuela & Colombia

The Luxburg Carolath Foundation works closely with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela tribes as well as the tribes from The Republic of Colombia. The foundation’s purpose is mainly to digitally preserve wide access information of their history, traditions and languages.

Venezuela

Indigenous people in Venezuela, Amerindians or Native Venezuelans, form about 2% of the total population of Venezuela, although many Venezuelans share some indigenous ancestry. Indigenous people are concentrated in the Southern Amazon rainforest state of Amazonas, where they make up nearly 50% of the population and in the Andes of the western state of Zulia. The most numerous indigenous people, at about 200,000, is the Venezuelan part of the Wayuu (or Guajiro) people who primarily live in the State of Zulia between Lake Maracaibo and the Colombian border. Another 100,000 or so indigenous people live in the sparsely populated southeastern states of Amazonas, Bolívar and Delta Amacuro. There are at least 26 indigenous groups in Venezuela, including the Ya̧nomamö, Pemon, Warao people, Baniwa people, Kali’na people, Motilone Barí, Ye’kuana and Yaruro.

According to the most popular and accepted version the name of Venezuela:  in 1499, an expedition led by Alonso de Ojeda visited the Venezuelan coast. The stilt houses in the area of Lake Maracaibo reminded the Italian navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, of the city of Venice, Italy, so he named the region Veneziola, or “Little Venice”.The Spanish version of Veneziola is Venezuela.

Below are some of the photos of Anu tribe which still exists today in Maracaibo in the region of Santa Rosa de Agua.

Martín Fernández de Enciso, a member of the Vespucci and Ojeda crew, gave a different account. In his work Summa de Geografía, he states that the crew found indigenous people who called themselves the Veneciuela. Thus, the name “Venezuela” may have evolved from the native word.

Since 1999 the Venezuelan Constitution and new laws drawn up by President Hugo Chavez’s allow indigenous groups unprecedented rights that they did not have for generations.

Colombia

American Indians, or indigenous peoples of The Republic of Colombia, are the ethnic groups who have been in Colombia prior to the Europeans in the early 16th century. Known as « pueblos indígenas originarios » in Spanish, they comprise 4.4% of the country’s population and belong to 87 different tribes.

The National Administrative Department of Statistics (Colombia) recognizes the existence of 146 indigenous groups with 87 of them officially recognized. In addition to this list, there are people who self-identify as indigenous people considered extinct (Calima, Chitarero, Panche and Tairona), of foreign origin (Otavaleño, Maya and others) or who do not identify with any particular tribe.

Approximately 50% of the indigenous peoples of Colombia live in the La Guajira Colombiana, Cauca, and Nariño Departments. While the Amazonian region of Colombia is sparsely populated, it is home to over 70 different indigenous ethnic groups.

The following is a list of the 87 officially recognized indigenous peoples in the 2005 census,with their respective population according to the 2018 (unrecognized peoples are in italics) : Wayuu, Senù, Nasa,
Pasto, Emberá Chamí , Emberá, Coyaima, Emberá Katío, Awá, Mokaná, Arhuaco, Coconuco, Arzario, Achagua, Amorúa, Andoke, Bara, Barasana, Barí, Betoye, Bora, Chitarero Calima, Cañamomo, Carapana, Chimila, Chiricoa, Cocama, Coreguaje, Desano, Dujo, Eperara, Siadipara, Guambiano, Guanaca, Guane, Guayabero, Hitnü, Inga, Jupda, Kawiyarí, Kãkwã, Kamëntsa, Kankuamo, Karijona, Kichwa, Kofán, Kogui, Kubeo, Kuiba, Kurripako, Letuama, Makaguaje, Makuna, Masiguare, Matapí, Miraña, Maya, Muisca, Nonuya, Nukak, Ocaina, Otavaleño, Panche, Piaroa, Piratapuyo, Pisamira, Puinave, Quimbaya, Sáliba, Sikuani, Siona, Siriano, Tairona, Taiwano, Tanimuka, Tariano, Tatuyo, Tikuna, Totoró, Tsiripu, Tucano, Tule, Tuyuka, Tzase, Uitoto, Umbrá, U’wa, Wanano, Waunan, Yagua, Yanacona, Yaruro, Yauna, Yuko, Yukuna, Yuri & Yurutí.

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  • Venezuela

Akawayo

The Akawayo are an indigenous people who live in Roraima (Brazil), Guyana, and Venezuela. The Akawayo is an ethnic group who lives between Venezuela…

Arawak

The Arawak are a group of indigenous peoples of South America and of the Caribbean. Specifically, the term “Arawak” has been applied at various times to the Lokono…

Arhuaco

The ika, iku, or bintukua –commonly called Arhuacos– are an Amerindian people who speak a language of the Chibcha family,…

Baniva

Baniva are South American Indians, who speak the Baniva language belonging to the Maipurean (Arawak) language family. They live in the Amazon Region, in the…

Bari

The Motilon, or Bari, are an indigenous people who live in the Catatumbo River basin in Norte de Santander Department in Colombia in South America. They are…

Bora

Bora is an indigenous people that lives in the lower Igará Paraná and the mouths of the Cahuinar River, tributaries…

Chaima

The Chaimas are an indigenous Venezuelan people whose location was around what is today Cariaco, Municipality of Ribero del Sucre State. They lived in the northeast…

Chamíes

Chamí or Emberá-Chamí is a Colombian indigenous ethnic group that speaks a dialect of the Emberá language: Chamí means “mountain…

Chibcha

Chibcha is an extinct language of Colombia, spoken by the Muisca, one of the four advanced indigenous civilizations of the Americas. The Muisca inhabited the central…

Cofán

Cofán, Kofán or A’i is an Amerindian town that lives in the northwest of the Amazon on the border between…

Cuiba

The Cuiba ethnic group is often found in the Casanare region. In Venezuela the language is spoken in the state of Apure, one of the state border with Colombia, which…

Emberá

The Emberá, êbêra or ẽpẽrá, also called Chocó, are an Amerindian people that live in some areas of the Pacific…

Karapanã 

Karapanã is an ethnic group originating from the jungles of the Colombian department of Vaupés and the Brazilian state of…

Kogui

They are a native people of Colombia, who live on the northern slope of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta…

Mapoyo

Mapoyo, or Mapoyo–Yavarana, is a Carib language spoken along the Suapure and Parguaza Rivers, Venezuela. The ethnic population of Mapoyo proper is about 365…

Maquiritare

The Maquiritare are a Cariban-speaking tropical rain-forest tribe who live in the Caura River and Orinoco River regions of Venezuela in Bolivar State and Amazonas State…

Maya

The Mayans are an ancient people inhabiting Mesoamerica and very particularly in Guatemala and in the Mexican states of Yucatán,…

Misak

The Misak or Guambianos are an original American people who live in the south of Colombia in the department of…

Nasa

The Nasa or Paez are an indigenous people, who live in the department of Cauca in the Andean area of…

Panare

The Panare people live in the Amazonian region of Venezuela. While Western culture has had a moderate influence on other tribes of the region, the Panare retain much…

Pemon

The Pemon or Pemón (Pemong) are indigenous people living in Venezuela’s Southeast, particularly in the Canaima National Park, in the Roraima State of Brazil and in…

Piapocos

The Piapocos come from the larger tribe, the Piaroa, who are indigenous to the Amazon rain forest. The Piapoco people originally lived in the midsection of Rio Guaviare…

Piaroa

The Piaroa are an indigenous people of the middle Orinoco Basin in present-day Venezuela, living in an area equivalent to the size of Belgium, roughly circumscribed by…

Pijaos

The Pijaos are a group of Amerindian peoples from Tolima and other neighboring territories in Colombia.

Pumé

The Yaruro language (also called Yuapín or Pumé) is an indigenous language spoken by Yaruro people, along the Orinoco, Cinaruco, Meta, and Apure rivers of Venezuela…

Quechuas

Quechua, or Quichua, is an ethnonym used to designate indigenous peoples originating from the Andes Mountains and the current States…

Sáliba

The Saliba are an original ethnic group that lives in Colombia and Venezuela. In Colombia live Casanare (Orocué, Hato Corozal…

Tupi

The Tupi people were one of the most numerous peoples indigenous to Brazil, before colonisation. Scholars believe that while they first settled in the Amazon rainforest…

Uruak

Arutani (ethnonym Uruak) is a nearly extinct language spoken by only 17 individuals in Roraima, Brazil and two others in the Karum River area of Bolivar State, Venezuela…

Waikeri

The Waikerí or Guaiqueríes were an indigenous people of northern Venezuela. They may have been related to the Warao people, or to the Arawaks or Cumanagotos…

Warao

The Warao are an indigenous Amerindian people inhabiting northeastern Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname. Alternate common spellings of Warao…

Wayu

The Wayú or guajiros (from the arahuaco guajiro) are aborigines of the Guajira peninsula, on the Caribbean Sea, who live mainly in the territories of La Guajira…

Yabarana

Mapoyo, or Mapoyo–Yavarana, is a Carib language spoken along the Suapure and Parguaza Rivers, Venezuela. The ethnic population of Mapoyo proper is about 365…

Yanomami

The Yanomami, also spelled Yąnomamö or Yanomama, are a group of approximately 35,000 indigenous people who live in some 200–250 villages in the Amazon rainforest…

Yeral

Língua Geral (= General Language) is the name of two distinct lingua francas, spoken in Brazil: the Língua Geral Paulista (tupi austral, or Southern Tupi), which was spoken…

Yukpa

Yukpa is an Amerindian ethnic group that inhabits the northeastern part of the Cesar Department in northern Colombia by the Serranía del Perijábordering Venezuela…

Zenu

The Sinú or Zenú are an indigenous people of Colombia, whose ancestral territory is constituted by the valleys of the Sinú River, the San Jorge and the Caribbean…