Niparaya

Niparaya is the creator god of the Pericú, a seafaring people of the Cape Region at the southern tip of Baja California, whose lands ran from Todos Santos to La Paz. They lived on fish, shellfish and agave and never farmed or made pottery.

Fragments of their mythology were written down in the early 1730s. Niparaya was an all-powerful master who made heaven and earth. His wife was Amayicoyondi, and they had three sons. Quaayayp made the race of men and was later killed by them; Acaragui was the second.

Jesuit missions reached La Paz in 1720 and San José del Cabo in 1730. After the Pericú revolt of 1734 and a long toll of disease and fighting, the Pericú were culturally extinct by the time the Jesuits were expelled in 1768.