Inga

The Inga or Ingano are the northernmost of the Quechua-speaking peoples, settled in the mountains and foothills of southwestern Colombia, chiefly the Sibundoy valley in Putumayo and northern Nariño, with communities reaching into Ecuador and Peru. Their tradition and language point to an Inca origin: in 1492 the Inca Huayna Cápac conquered the Kamëntsá people of the Sibundoy valley and planted a Quechua-speaking colony there, whose descendants became the Inga.

The Spaniards reached the valley in 1534, yet Quechua long remained an administrative tongue under the Viceroyalty of Peru, and the Inga kept their own dialect, Inga Kichwa, which a briefly established Jesuit mission later carried to neighboring groups.