Tolupan

The Tolupan, better known in colonial records as the Jicaque, are an indigenous people of the Caribbean coast of Honduras. In late pre-Hispanic times they ranged along the Bay of Honduras from the Ulúa River to Puerto Castilla and inland as far as the Sulaco River, hunting and fishing, growing bitter manioc and trading maize and cochineal cactus in dugout canoes.

They met the Spanish invasion with armed resistance: in 1536 their chief Cicumba fought Pedro de Alvarado's troops along the Ulúa and in the Sula valley, until he was captured and left to starve. In 1609 Tolupan groups resettled along the Guayape and Guayambre rivers of Olancho.

The label Jicaque, drawn from a K'iche' word meaning savage, was used in colonial documents for any unconverted Indians outside Spanish rule, not only for the Tolupan themselves.