Quitu

The Quitu were the original people of the Pichincha highlands of central-northern Ecuador, valley farmers settled south of the Guayllabamba River. Their name also served for the network of Panzaleo chiefdoms stretching from Tungurahua and Cotopaxi to the site of Quito.

Around 800 they dug three-level tombs above their villages, burying their dead in a squatting posture with textiles and Spondylus shell ornaments obtained through long-distance trade. They shared the cult of the lightning god Catequil with their neighbours.

With the Caranqui they fought the invading Incas. The confederacy held off Túpac Yupanqui but was subdued by Huayna Capac, under whom a later revolt was crushed. Quito became an Inca city and fell to the Spaniards in 1534. Chroniclers name the Puruhá-Quitu princess Paccha Duchicela, held to be the mother of Atahualpa, as a daughter of these chiefdoms.