Wayuu

The Wayuu, also called Guajiro, were an Arawakan-speaking people of the arid Guajira Peninsula on the Caribbean coast, between Colombia and Venezuela. Organized into matrilineal clans, they lived in scattered rancherías, herded goats, fished and gathered, and were known for their woven mochila bags.

They were never subdued by the Spanish: the two sides remained in a more or less permanent state of war, marked by repeated rebellions. The Wayuu adopted horses and firearms, obtaining guns from English and Dutch smugglers in exchange for pearls and brazilwood.

The great Guajira rebellion of 1769 began after Spaniards seized Wayuu to build the fortifications of Cartagena; at its height some twenty thousand warriors took nearly every settlement in the region and burned them. Spanish reinforcements ended the rising, but the Wayuu kept their autonomy and their arms through the rest of the colonial period.