Sach'a-p-qulla

The Sach'a-p-qulla, better known as the Chachapoyas or “Warriors of the Clouds,” were an Andean people of the eastern slopes of the northern Peruvian Andes, centred on the Utcubamba valley. Their culture took shape around AD 800 in cloud forest won by terracing. Its hallmark was the mountaintop citadel of Kuélap, with more than four hundred stone buildings behind walls eighteen metres high.

The Inca Túpac Yupanqui conquered them around 1475, but they rebelled again under Huayna Cápac, killing his governors. The revolt ended when women led by a former concubine of Túpac Yupanqui begged for peace.

In the Inca civil war they backed Huáscar and suffered Atahualpa's revenge, so many welcomed Francisco Pizarro. Spanish troops occupied Chachapoyas in 1547, ending their independence; disease and resettlement cut the region's population by some ninety percent within two centuries.