Indians of Panama

The thinnest link between Central and South America, Panama became the centre of Spanish exploration and expansion at the beginning of the 16th century, after its discovery in 1501. Panama is rich in history and man-made achievements, from its pre-Colombian history to some of its modern man-made engineering features, such as the Panama Canal, whose daring will take your breath away. Major Indian tribes are the Guaymies, Cunas and Chocoe Indians, related to the Mayans in the north and the Chibchas of Colombia. Some of the noted explorers and conquistadors to have passed through the area are the Spaniards Bilboa and Francisco Pizarro, the Englishman Sir Frances Drake and the Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps.

San Blas de Cuna Islands

Situated in the Caribbean Sea a few miles off the north coast of Panama, the San Blas de Cuna Islands are the home of the Cuna, a traditional society of Native Americans. Most of these tropical islands are very small. Many are surrounded by coral reefs. The islands are part of Panama, but are primarily administered by the Cuna tribe.

The Kuna Indians of San Blas Islands, Panama

We would see the Kunas around post all the time, but never the Chocoe Indians. Look at all their bracelets, and they look so tight!
Meet the astonishing mola makers (reverse applique). Their molas are a surprising, inventive artistic expression. Mola art digests old myth, new news, and humor with an elegant, dynamic use of design & color. The ubiquitous folk wood sculptures, the Nuchugana, while usually only six to fifteen inches tall are powerful & meaningful. Meet the Cunas: canoe makers, fishermen, & farmers as well as the saylas, chiefs; igar wisids, chanters; ina duleds, medicine men; & neles, shamans. Visit the onmaked negas, gathering houses and the inna nega, chicha (native beer) houses. Listen to storytellers, singers, flute, & pan pipe players.

Kuna, also known among themselves as the Tule, Native South American group of the Chibchan language family and of Panama. They now inhabit part of the country's northern shore and the neighboring San Blas Archipelago. In former times the Kuna occupied the greater part of the Isthmus of Panama. Cases of hereditary albinism among the Kuna have given rise to legends of white Native Americans.

Sites you might want to check out...

Kuna Yala Mola Gallery (patterns of the blouses they make and sell.)

Kuna Indians on the San Blas Islands

Darién Province and the Chocoe Indians

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer

Much have I traveled in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific – and all his men
Looked at each other with a wild surmise–
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
...Keats




Some of the indigenous inhabitants - such as the Chocoe Indians - still pursue a hunter-gatherer existence in the huge conservation area called Darien. By contrast, the Kuna Indians have long since discovered the financial attractions of tourism on the San Blas Archipelago on the Caribbean coast, raking in the dollars, where formerly the coconut was used as currency. This ethnic group of about 45,000 lives close to the sea and has held fast to its traditions.

Darién is a province in eastern Panama. It is hot, humid, heavily forested, and sparsely populated.

Europeans first discovered the region in 1501, and Christopher Columbus sighted it on his fourth voyage in 1503. The Spanish established the first European colony in South America, Santa María la Antigua del Darién, in Darién in 1510. The settlement did not prosper, however, and was soon abandoned. From this town Vasco Núñez de Balboa made his march to the Pacific in 1513. Some of the refugees from Santa María went on to found Panama City in 1519.

In 1698, the Scots launched another attempt to colonize Darién: the Darién scheme. It too ended in failure and led to the Acts of Union 1707 which joined the parliaments of Scotland and England (with Wales) into the United Kingdom.

Today the chief town in Darién is La Palma, located where the Tuira River empties into the Bay of San Miguel.

The province was formed in 1922 from Panamá province.

Darien appears in Keats' poem "On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer"; in the poem, "stout Cortez" is in Darien when he first sees the Pacific Ocean. (In fact it was Balboa, not Cortez, who was involved in this historical event.) (Wikipedia)