Tonia (because you expressed interest in the Indigenous peoples), and others: Here is a commentary on Ecuador's wonderful Indigenous People. It is long. If you are not interested, just skip it.
The country has approximately 14 distinct indigenous groups or 'tribes' and they are all very different. The Otavalo Tribe are perhaps the wealthiest and most upscale, first travelling outside of Ecuador some 50 years ago, selling their weaving wares, and in anthropological studies, they were first called the Cara and one of the first tribes to travel way far from their lands--they were the original 'cosmopolitan' Indians....they were noted for this. We have many wealthy Indians here in the area, and they are sometimes called the "Golden Ponchos" (Ponchos Dorados). Some have millions and millions of dollars of property here, as well as in Central America, Europe, primarily Spain, et al. One Otavalen Indian is so wealthy he owns property here, a few houses in Barcelona, and owns his own parking space in downtown of that city. Some made their 'wealth' 30-40 years ago when they started to travel to Europe and all over the world to sell their music and their handicrafts. They all work together, honestly, as one 'extended' family, and pool their resources, so they can accomplish alot. Rumors abound that back then before laws were strict, that they carried many different things to sell abroad. However, there are many more very poor indians here, they are the majority and we live amongst some of the poorest.
There are only 3 countries in South America that boast a large and colorful indigenous population now, and they are Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. Those of course are the 3 countries that I know best! Ecuador's Indigenous people are some of the most militant on the continent, with CONAIE and ECUARUNARI being two large Indigenous organizations who would be in charge of organizing strikes and petitioning for 'rights' --these are the Leaders of the Leaders. Right now, the Indigenous People are at odds with the President, Rafael Correa. Oddly enough, the Indigenous vote brought in Military ex-prez., Lucio Gutierrez, who by the way, was a bit involved in this recent 'situation' with President Correa. The Ecuadorian Military and the Indigenous usually get along well.
The Indians in Bolivia are probably the most hard-core when it comes to organized strikes and they once were on strike in Cochabamba for over a year (many died) to prevent USA-Bectel from taking over the 'water rights'--- with Evo Morales, Community Organizer back then at the helm; he is now the president. They did win in the end and Bolivians own their own water rights. To attest to the 'Power of Protest' in Bolivia, a little publicized news fact---about 3 months ago, Evo Morales tried to remove the huge subsidy on Gasoline and cooking propane gas. It went up about 70%. The people took to the streets and shut the country down. He was forced to rescind. The subsidy is back in place. I have marched in Bolivia in many protests, gotten tear-gassed, etc. When they strike in Bolivia, they really mean business. We have not had a BIG one here in Ecuador in years and some say that our Indians have gotten "soft"---the biggest was about 11 years ago when the Indians shut down the whole country for 3 weeks. I mean not a potato moved. CONAIE called my husband to go out in the streets to film, they would not let CNN into the area. That strike very well might go down in Ecuadorian history as one of the most organized and longest. I personally feel that with the current animosity between the Indians and the President, well, we might see some protests this year. The Indians in the Jungle, the Shuar, are also very organized, but not as organized as the Highland (Andean) Indians. A year ago the government killed some Shuar.....it died down in the news. I feel that if an Otavalen was killed, more would have been made of it.
I remember about 30 years ago when we were first down here, there was a huge San Juan (one of the biggest Indigenous celebrationis in all of So. Amer.) and we were at a very large gathering of indigenous people up on the San Pablo Lake. Well, we were invited there with a group of Indians, one of which was a community leader. So some of the other militant community leaders came over to us and said that we 'had to leave now...and that we were 'gringos' (not Indians) and not welcome.' Our friends did some fast talking in Quechua and we were then allowed to stay. To this day, one of the most militant and sometimes-criminal element of the Otavalo Indigenous Tribe live up in the villages around the San Pablo Lake. I affectionately call them 'Noble Savages.' Unfortunately, they are very poor, some cannot even speak spanish correctly and alot are involved with the FARC who are in charge of the Drug Trade in Colombia, some 2 and a half hours by car up the pike from Otavalo....there are shoot-outs up there and all kinds of wild things. They are 'underlings' of course, but still, if you 'join up' you may only leave in a coffin. This was told to me by some poor, and tempted, Indians, who choose in the end not to join up. These 'Noble Savages' are of course 'for hire,' as well.
SO, It has taken us about 30 years and more to become somewhat integrated into the Indigenous culture and we are written about in quite a few Anthropological articles and books over the years by prominent writers. When we first started to come here in the 70s we first alluded to the Indians and wanted to bond with them. This caused animosity with the "Latins--Whites--Mestizos" who can be very rascist. They can be 'doubly' rascist against Gringos (who are perceived as having $$$ in the first place) who choose Indians over the Latins. Of course, there was a little bit of "Lewis and Clarke" in this as well, as we were primarily purchasing the handicrafts for our business from the Indians. Then every year that we came back, or every 6 months, we brought photos of them, things for their babies. SO then we started to accummulate godchildren and believe me we were very discriminating! We have about 44 godchildren right now. My husband makes small movies about the Indians. So, as the years passed, more and more Indigenous people got to know us. I remember one time about 15 years ago we were taking a car ride and we were out in the middle of nowhere maybe 20 miles or so away from town, in our old 1978 long-wheel base Toyota Land Cruiser, out where there were no roads, and we ran into some Indians and they knew us!
The difference between the Latins and the Indians is vast. It could be like comparing the Russians and the Jamaicans! Over the years we have learned much about Indigenous culture and one of the movies that my husband made, I think the best and one of the first, The Marriage (Matrimony of an Indigenous Couple cerca 1930's) was extremely well researched, as well as well heralded by the Indigenous communities and the anthropologists. In our quest for 'accuracy', we worked on costumes, and learned rituals for a year before filming. Some of the Otavalo Indigenous research materials that we used were "The Awakening Valley," 1947, anthropological pictorial by Buitron and Collier, also "Peguche," 1937, anthropologist Elsie Clews Parsons incredible peek into life among the Otavalo back then. It took her 6 months on a boat just to arrive to the continent and God knows how many hours from Quito to arrive here! (Now, from Quito to Otavalo, it is a 2 hour bus ride!). A bit of Indigenous Trivia here: The subject of her book, a beautiful Indian girl, Rosa Lema, many years later, had an illegitimate baby with the then-president of Ecuador, Gallo Plaza, who was instrumental in implementing the first "Land Rights" laws in Ecuador. The son is now about 60 years old and lives as an Indian, but of course, was very well educated in the U.S. A spanish book was written about this: "Porque Se Fueron Las Garzas."
Oh--I DO love south American Indigenous Trivia. Actually I think I have been attracted to living with the Indians ever since I can remember!
SO, about 10-11 years ago we had the opportunity to purchase a 40 acre mountain outside of town, in the middle of Indian Territory. This piece of land had gone through a bit of trouble in the past, as various Latins owned it, but didn't "play ball" with the Indians so they sold... We purchased it from a Latin Man who was shady because there were many problems with the land title. In any case, we were offered a price, and it was high. But we could just not put money on the table and "Hard Bargain" with the guy, as we could not purchase the land right off. You see, we had to petition to the 5 small individual Indian Communities up here for months and they had to "jury" us, in order to "permit" us to live among them and purchase the land. We went to many rustic Indian meetings, in Quechua (I didn't understand all)...they translated some for us. They were militant and some did not want us here. The Indian "Junta of Water" would not give us permission to have water rights because essentially there was no water. We then, promised to "rebuild the system from scratch"---and we and 400 Indians did---bringing water right out of the mountain into a holding tank, and tubing it down to the people. 5 years later I must give thanks to the University of Wisconsin for doing computerized studies and repairs on this water system. A 20-minute film about the building of the water system (about 5 months) can be seen on my husband's film site and it is called "The Minga."
So you see, in the end, we were in the end 'permitted' to purchase the land and live up here, of course, we lost all of our bargaining power with the Latin because we had to put him on hold and then he became aware of how much we wanted it, etc. But we are here, but it had been no easy task. We then started the "Ali Shungu Foundation" to help with education grants and many small projects. Anyone out there that can donate time in Grant Writing, please contact us, or if you wish to help in ANY way possible. (English Lessons, Used Clothing, capacitation, supplies, meds., etc., etc., etc.)
Recently a Gringa Woman (USA) took advantage and robbed alot of money from a prominent Indian Foundation, "Maquipurashun"---She cheated money from them and now lives in town in a nice house and has two cars. Down in other parts of Ecuador, for example, the most militant part is around Riobamba and Chimborazo, if the Indian Communities catch a thief, they will tie him up, beat him, and/or set fire to him. They are very rough down that way. Here in Otavalo, just last year, there was a cattle thief caught and was locked in the little community "school' for the weekend and beaten with stinging nettles.....Usually the Indian way of justice is not messed with by the Latin Cops--unless something very heavy happens. As a footnote, about 15 years ago, two Otavalo Policemen in uniform were "kidnapped" by the group of "Noble Savages" up on San Pablo Lake. They were held for a couple of days and could only escape when the Indians got drunk and started to play volley ball on Sunday afternoon. The Cops were lucky to get away and nothing ever came of it.
Some Gringos come here and the Indians do not accept them and if that happens, well, no use staying around. That is the way it is. What I meant in my post about "This is not the Yakima Nation"---was, it is a delicate situation to be involved with the Indians here in South America. There is a rhythm to it, and you need lots of love and something to 'offer' them and continuity and sincerity and lots of time.
Many of the Expats and Gringos who are coming here to live are 'scared to death' of the Indians, I have been told. With reason, as they are a completely different culture to them, perhaps they can at least relate to the Latins a bit more. In Cotacachi, where Otavalen Indians live, there are some Gringos there that have made friends with some Indians as workers, and that is good. I have been in some very hairy circumstances over the years, and once found myself alone in the middle of a cornfield in the middle of the night in a very "Noble Savage" (bad) Indian Gang Area. I ws 'lost.' They took me in, fed me, and sent me on my way. Others could not believe that this had happened to me and they did not steal my car or kidnap me or rob me or violate me in any way. Of course, I speak Quechua, there are not too many gringos who do speak their language and that lets them know right off the bat, I just didn't blow into town and it also means that I respect them.
I would have to say that if we ever really "offended" the Indians, I am quite sure, legal land title or not, all the Indians here would band together and make our lives hell! Of course, that could never happen to us.
So you see, the reason that I have written about the Indians is that I feel that this information is not only entertaining (to some) and educational to others. It has also been the basis for our lives down here. The Indians are also about half of the population down here in Ecuador.
Margarita
www.alishungumountaintoplodge.com
www.alishungufoundation.com
www.otavalovideos.com
"If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there." ~ Lewis Carroll
(This is sometimes so true!)
Here are some Indigenous websites to stay in touch with the Indigenous happenings:
Otavalo Indians' own website:
www.otavalosonline.com
Ecuador Indians:
http://ecuador-rising.blogspot.com/
http://ecuador-rising.blogspot.com/2010/02/ecuadors-neo-liberal-model.html
South American Indian News, lots on Ecuador
upsidedownworld.org
(April Howard and Ben Dangle)
Also Nicholas Crowder's websites have information on Indigenous things, especially his interviews which are many times about indigenous things:
http://www.latinamericabookreview.com
http://www.latinamericatraveler.com/The_Guinea_Pig_healing_Food_Ritual_in_the_andes.htm
http://www.latinamericatraveler.com/Ritual_Encounters_Otavalan_Modern_and_Mythic
_Community.htm
INTERVIEW WITH DR. MARC CRAMER REGARDING HIS BOOK ON INDIGENOUS ISSUES IN ECUADOR
http://www.latinamericatraveler.com/INDIANS_AND_LEFTISTS_IN_THE_MAKING_OF_ECUADORS_MODERN_INDIGENOUS_MOVEMENTS_1.htm
General Indigenous News from around the world
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/
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