Nomatsigenga

The Nomatsigenga are an Arawakan-speaking people of Peru's central forest, whose ancestral territory lies east of the Andes among the Anapati, Ene, Satipo and Sonomoro river basins. They kept close relations with neighbouring Asháninka communities through visits, kinship and exchange. Franciscan evangelization began in the central forest in the seventeenth century, and an early encounter took place around 1635 at the mission of Quemirí on the Chanchamayo River. Cerro de la Sal was a place where Indigenous peoples obtained salt and exchanged goods.