Kakataibo

The Kakataibo belong to the Pano-speaking peoples of the forested river country between the Aguaytia, San Alejandro and Sungaroyacu in Peru. Many call themselves Uni, meaning people or true people. The name Cashibo, often found in older outside accounts, came through neighbouring Shipibo-Konibo usage and is considered derogatory by many Kakataibo.

Franciscan expeditions provide early written traces of contact, rather than a beginning for the people's history. Religious travellers reached the wider region in 1657, and incursions between 1727 and 1736 met a group called Carapachos, later identified as Kakataibo. Kakataibo resistance drove missionaries out in 1757 and obstructed outside navigation of the Aguaytia around 1790. These episodes show communities controlling access to their rivers instead of simply receiving colonial expansion. Their own livelihoods combined shifting cultivation with forest and river resources, while relations with neighbouring peoples included competition for manufactured goods, especially metal tools.