The Huambisa, also known as the Wampis, are an

indigenous people of Peru The Indigenous peoples of Peru or Indigenous Peruvians comprise a large number of ethnic groups who inhabit territory in present-day Peru. Indigenous cultures developed here for thousands of years before the arrival of the Spanish in 1532. In 2 ...

and

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. One of the

Jivaroan peoples The Jivaroan peoples are the indigenous peoples in the headwaters of the Marañon River and its tributaries, in northern Peru and eastern Ecuador. The tribes speak the Chicham languages. Their traditional way of life relies on gardening, and o ...

, they speak the

Huambisa language Huambisa, Huambiza, Wambiza, Jíbaro, Xívaro, Wampis, Maina, or Shuar-Huampis is an indigenous language of the Huambisa people, Huambisa people of Peru. Spanish colonizers first generated the name Xívaro in the late 16th century as a way of ove ...

and live on the upper Marañón and

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

rivers. They numbered about 5,000 people in the 1980s.

History

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Huambisa faced several incursions by the

Inca Empire The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...

. They consistently fended off the Inca, developing a strong culture of resistance in the process. After the Spanish conquered the Inca Empire in the 1530s, they too made attempts to subjugate the Huambisa. The Huambisa first encountered the Spanish in 1549, and through the next decade the conquistador Juan de Salinas launched several incursions in their homeland. The Spanish established settlements and the

encomienda The ''encomienda'' () was a Spanish Labour (human activity), labour system that rewarded Conquistador, conquerors with the labour of conquered non-Christian peoples. In theory, the conquerors provided the labourers with benefits, including mil ...

labor system among the Huambisa, which resulted in a population decline. However, by the end of the 16th century, the Huambisa decimated the Spanish settlements and regained control of their land. Spanish

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

and

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

missionaries made a series of attempts to evangelize the Huambisa in the 18th and 19th centuries, but all resulted in failure. During the

Amazon rubber boom The Amazon rubber cycle or boom (, ; , ) was an important part of the socioeconomic history of Brazil and Amazonian regions of neighboring countries, being related to the commercialization of Natural rubber, rubber and the genocide of indigenous ...

, there was an expedition in 1910 made by a rubber firm against the Huambisa territory near the Pongo de Manseriche. The purpose of this expedition was to entrap or enslave the local natives so that they could be used to extract rubber. At least sixty-seven people on this expedition were killed in retaliation by the Huambisa natives. As late as the 1930s, the Huambisa launched attacks on white settlers encroaching on their land. The Huambisa have faced significant turmoil since the 1940s as their native land has been the subject of a

border dispute A territorial dispute or boundary dispute is a disagreement over the possession or control of territories (land, water or airspace) between two or more political entities. Context and definitions Territorial disputes are often related to the ...

between Peru and Ecuador. In 1999, the two countries settled the dispute with an agreement that the territory belonged to Peru. Since then, the Huambisa have faced additional disruption due to oil exploration in the area.Schniter, Eric
"Huambisa"
Amazonia. Archived October 30, 2005. Retrieved November 22, 2020. By the 1980s, the Huambisa gained legal recognition of their ownership of their ancestral lands, making them one of the few indigenous peoples in South America who retain the territory they had prior to European colonization.

Culture

The Huambisa mostly speak their traditional

, one of the

Chicham languages The Chicham languages, also known as Jivaroan (''Hívaro'', ''Jívaro'', ''Jibaro'') is a small language family of northern Peru and eastern Ecuador. Family division Chicham consists of four languages: : 1. Shuar : 2. Achuar-Shiwiar : 3. Aw ...

, but many know Spanish and

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several Indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, an Indigenous South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language ...

. They are primarily agriculturists who grow crops, especially plantains and

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...

but also

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

, and other plants, using

slash-and-burn Slash-and-burn agriculture is a form of shifting cultivation that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a Field (agriculture), field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody p ...

methods. They supplement their diets with hunting and fishing. As of the 1980s there were approximately 5,000 Huambisa, mostly living in their ancestral territory. They primarily live in small patrilineal communities that maintain political independence from one another. Each community lives together in a thatched longhouse, typically 80 feet long by 40 feet wide.

References

Jivaroan peoples Indigenous peoples of the Amazon Indigenous peoples in Peru Ethnic groups in Peru {{SouthAm-ethno-group-stub