Ch'ol

The Ch'ol are Maya of the northern Chiapas highlands whose Ch'ol language forms the conservative Cholan branch of Mayan, among the living tongues closest to the Classic Mayan of hieroglyphic inscriptions at Palenque and other cities.

At contact Ch'ol speakers also held the Lacandon Jungle: the Lakandon Ch'ol capital stood at Lakam-Tun on Laguna Miramar. Hernán Cortés first heard of them in 1524 while passing through Kejache lands. Spanish expeditions began in 1559; by century's end the Lakandon Ch'ol had abandoned Lakam-Tun and founded Sac Balam, whose name means white jaguar. From there they raided Guatemalan highlands and traded cacao and achiote for iron tools with Verapaz towns through the seventeenth century.

The Spanish stormed Sac Balam in 1695; other Ch'ol were gathered into reducciones at Palenque and nearby towns, the last independent Lakandon bands being forcibly relocated in 1712 and absorbed into the highland Maya.