U'wa

The U'wa, known to outsiders as the Tunebo, are a Chibchan-speaking people of northeastern Colombia, centred on the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy. Their name means 'the people', and neighbouring peoples call them 'the people who speak well'; their tongue belongs to the Magdalenic branch of the Chibchan family.

In early times they may have numbered as many as 20,000, organised into traditionally eight matrilineal clans. Clans moved seasonally between highland and lowland zones, traded pineapples to the Muisca and exchanged surpluses at ceremonial sites marked by standing stones. Werjaya elders and kareka healers led each clan, and myths and customs passed chiefly through song.

When Spanish expeditions began entering the eastern Andes in the 1530s, the rugged remoteness of the Cocuy kept large parts of their homeland closed to outsiders. This helped the clans preserve their language and ritual life.