Guayacundo

The Guayacundos were a macro-ethnic group of the northern Peruvian Andes, spread across the highlands of present-day Piura into Loja in Ecuador. Colonial sources describe a loose confederation of chiefdoms.

They fought Inca armies when Túpac Yupanqui carried the northern wars into the Piura sierra after defeating the Chimú in the late fifteenth century; their leader Guacall negotiated peace and kept his rank under the Inca title Apo Guacal, while many warriors were deported as mitimaes to Quito. Their centres at Caxas, Aypate and Olleros became Inca provincial towns with terraces and storehouses.

They sided with Huáscar against Atahualpa in the Inca civil war and were punished for it. Under Spanish rule they were divided among encomiendas and reductions, and a revolt under curaca Cosme Chinguel around 1588 failed; within generations their tongue gave way to Quechua and then Spanish.