Coyaima

Coyaima lies in the warm lowlands of southern Tolima, in what is now Colombia, near the lower Saldaña basin. The Coyaima were among the Indigenous peoples associated with the Pijao, living along the Magdalena and its tributaries. Their country lay between the Andean ranges and the river valleys that connected communities across the region.

During Spanish colonial rule, Coyaima became a pueblo de indios, a settlement governed within the colonial system. The municipal account dates an Indigenous settlement to 1608 and says that Bernabé de Saavedra, a prosecutor of the Royal Audiencia, formalized its foundation in 1621. Its history includes disputes over Indigenous land: a study of Coyaima's resguardo examines agrarian conflict there in the second half of the eighteenth century.