Tairona

The Tairona were Chibcha-speaking chiefdoms in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta on Colombia's Caribbean coast. Their towns included terraced Teyuna on the Buritaca River, linked to coastal villages by trade.

Spain founded Santa Marta in 1525, beginning decades of intermittent war. In 1551 Pedro de Ursúa's expedition perished at the Paso de Origua; the Tairona also burned Santa Marta and traded with French and English corsairs. Governor Juan Guiral Velón crushed the last uprisings in 1599–1600, and survivors withdrew into the mountains.