Puben

The Pubenenses were the farming people of the Pubén valley in southwestern Colombia, where the Spanish later built Popayán. Tradition recorded by the chronicles brings them from the Pacific coast about a thousand years before Columbus. They practiced raised-field agriculture, cotton weaving, pottery and goldwork, and kept an army and hilltop fortresses.

In 1535 the expedition of Pedro de Añasco and Juan de Ampudia fought up the Patía River, defeated the cacique Yasgüén and founded Timbío near the Pubenense heartland; Popayán was laid out in 1537. Resistance continued, and in 1541 Ampudia was killed by a spear thrust in a battle on his return to the town.