Kanari

The Cañari were a confederation of the southern Ecuadorian highlands, holding country from Azuay to Saraguro around Tumebamba, on the site of modern Cuenca. United under an elected war leader in times of crisis, they farmed valleys, kept a lunar calendar and built round moon temples, ruins surviving at Ingapirca beside Inca masonry.

They held out against Inca armies until Túpac Yupanqui and his son Huayna Capac subdued them around the turn of the sixteenth century; Tumebamba became a northern Inca capital, the second Cuzco, the Cañari adopting Kichwa while keeping much of their self-rule. In the civil war they backed Huáscar, Atahualpa punishing them after retaking Tumebamba.

They joined Francisco Pizarro against the Incas, fighting at Sacsayhuamán in 1536; caciques such as Francisco Chilche remained allies into the 1570s, their levies serving against Tupac Amaru. Under colonial rule their unclassified language gradually fell out of use, replaced by Kichwa.