User:Rosenam2/Indigenous peoples of Costa Rica

Indigenous people of Costa Rica, or Native Costa Ricans, are the peoples who lived in what is now Costa Rica prior to European and African contact and the descendants of those peoples. About 114,000 indigenous people live in the country, comprising 2.4% of the total population. There currently exist eight recognized Native groups present in the country - the Boruca, Bribri, Cabécar, Ngäbe, Huetar, Maleku, Chorotega, and Naso peoples.

In 1977, the government passed the Indigenous Law, which created reservations. There are a total of 24 indigenous territories located throughout Costa Rica. They gained the right to vote in 1994, but legislative discussion of other laws and policies (such as the Law on Indigenous Peoples' Autonomous Development) has been delayed multiple years. While indigenous people have struggled for legal recognition of their rights, Costa Rica did sign the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. There is currently no Indigenous representation in Costa Rica's legislature.

History

Main article: Pre-Columbian history of Costa Rica

The first indigenous peoples of present day Costa Rica were hunters and gatherers, and the territory was divided in two cultural areas due to its geographical location in the Intermediate Area, between the Mesoamerican and the Andean cultural regions. Its indigenous peoples have lived in Costa Rica for what stretches back to at least 10,000 years before the arrival of the Spaniards.

The northwest of the country, the Nicoya Peninsula, was the southernmost point of Mesoamerican cultural influence when the Spanish conquerors came in the sixteenth century. The Nicoya culture was the largest cacicazgo on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The central and southern portions of the country belonged to the Isthmo-Colombian cultural area with strong Muisca influences, as they were part of territories occupied predominantly by speakers of the Chibchan languages. The Diquis culture flourished from 700 CE to 1530 CE.

Christopher Columbus arrived in Costa Rica in 1502 on his last trip to the Americas. Costa Rica received its name from Gil Gonzalez Dávila when he arrived and thought he found the most gold he had ever seen; therefore naming it the "Rich Coast". To the Spaniards, it was less organized from other indigenous groups they had discovered, mainly because they lived in separate groups rather than one large group. During the colonization, Costa Rica was very poor, mainly because it was isolated from the majority of colonies of the Spanish Empire. The initial colonies that were set up were unsuccessful because of disease, as well as the weather of the tropical rain forests. Costa Rica did not become a province of Spain until the 1560s, when a community was created that used the volcanic soil for agricultural purposes. By the time that Columbus arrived, there were about 20,000 Costa Rican natives, but this number greatly declined. That was primarily due to disease, particularly smallpox as well as the fact that many indigenous people were enslaved to work and oftentimes escaped from them. Many remaining Indigenous tribes relocated their settlements into the mountains so as to avoid death or slavery brought upon by the Spanish conquest.

Post-Columbian history primarily consists of land ownership conflicts. The Indigenous Law passed in 1977 stated that all declared Indigenous reserves would be inhabited only by Indigenous groups. However, over half of these declared Indigenous lands are still used for cattle ranching by non-Indigenous populations. In recent years, multiple Indigenous leaders have been killed by non-Indigenous citizens while occupying or re-occupying their respective tribes' lands.

Groups

Boruca

About 2,000 people are currently in the Boruca tribe. They live in the Puntarenas area of Costa Rica among the Talamanca Mountains. They are known for their crafts, particularly Boruca masks made for the "Fiesta de los Diablitos" (directly translated to Festival of the Little Devils, but more accurately translated as Festival of the Ancestral Spirits). This is a festival lasting three days, during which the Boruca people (portrayed as devils) and the Spanish conquistadors (portrayed as Boruca individuals dressed as Bulls) participate in the "Danza de los Diablitos" where Boruca men who have created their own masks dance around a large fire. On the third day of the festival, just as the Bulls seem to be winning, the Devils overpower them, just as it is said to have occurred during Columbian attempts at conquest. While Boruca men participate in this festival as the dancers, the women of the tribe both organize the festival and prepare an alcoholic beverage made from corn, called Chicha. Authentic Boruca masks can be created in the image of something either devilish or ecological, or they may depict a combination of the two. Oftentimes, these masks are constructed to pay homage to the animal spirits that are believed to have aided the Boruca during Spanish Conquest. These masks have been crafted and sold by those not belonging to the Boruca tribe, which led to the formation of La Flor de Boruca - a group of 8 Boruca women led by Margarita Morales Lázaro. Through the actions of this group, attempts have been made to reclaim ownership over the creation and commodification of these masks.

Bribri

The Bribri are an indigenous tribe that lives in Salitre, Cabagra, Talamanca Bribri and Kekoldi; Cabécar in Alto Chirripó, Tayni, Talamanca Cabécar, Telire and China Kichá, Bajo Chirripó, Nairi Awari and Ujarrás. They are a voting majority in the Puerto Viejo de Talamanca area. The range of the population is debated, stretching from 11,000 to 35,000 people. The Bribri have a specific social structure that is organized in clans. Each clan is composed of an extended family. Women have a higher status in this society, because their children's clans are determined by whichever clan they come from. Women in the Bribri society are the only ones that can inherit land and prepare the sacred cacao drink used during the rituals. Men's roles are defined by their clan, and often are exclusive for men. The spiritual leader, or "awa" is very important to the Bribri, which men may have the opportunity to become. Just as it is important to many other indigenous groups in Costa Rica, Cacao holds a particular significance for the Bribri. They believe that the cacao tree used to be a woman and the god Sibú turned her into a tree. Only women may prepare the drink, there are many associations that produce handmade chocolate which help these women and provide a resource to be used for both spiritual and medicinal purposes by the women of the clans. Cacao is often used in rites of passage within the tribe, such as when a girl reaches her first menstrual cycle. The word "Bribri" means "mountains" in their language, and there are three main dialects of the language - Salitre-Cabaga, Coroma, and Katsi-Amubre. The tribe, despite its seclusion from society, will frequently host visitors in order to build financial security.

Cabécar

The Cabécar are the largest Indigenous group in Costa Rica with approximately 17,000 people and are considered to be the most isolated, living in the Cordillera de Talamanca mountain range. They have been pushed up to the Chirripo Mountains, which require a few hours long hike to reach. Both physically difficult-to-reach terrain as well as an emphasis on cultural preservation warrant the tribe to have its own educational system, but this system is underfunded and does not currently have financial access to books or clean water. Education of the tribe's youth relies on the women of the tribe. A recent group called La Antena de Las Mujeres ("the Women's Antenna) has mobilized with the goal of integrating Cabécar youth into popular education using more digital technologies. This move to digital learning hase been contested by many Cabécar women due to the existing tradition that the women of the tribe will verbally pass down knowledge to the children. The community remains largely separate from the remainder of Costa Rican society, so the tribe still retains its use of traditional practices, hunting and fishing, and natural medicines.

Ngäbe

The Ngäbe are an indigenous group whose lands extend between modern-day Costa Rica and Panama. In Costa Rica, the tribe has five territories: Coto Brus, Abrojos Montezuma, Conte Burica, Chiriquí, and Bocas del Toro. Many people of the Ngäbe emigrated from Panama to Costa Rica in the 1960s seeking work on plantations growing coffee and other crops. Their main source of income is based on agriculture where they grow bananas, rice, corn, beans and more. However, much of the tribe lives beneath the poverty level, so many live in isolation and run on agricultural self-sufficiency. The Ngäbe are notable for their attire, with the women of the tribe adorned in handmade, loose robes of bright colors and a variety of patterns (called 'dientes' or teeth, these patterns often carry spiritual meanings as well, often representing mountains or rivers) and the men often dressing in the attire of peasants. Cultural traditions of the Ngäbe often utilize face painting, but this face painting may also be used to depict happiness.

Huetar

The Huetar peoples are located in the Quitirrisí district (Ciudad Colon and Puriscal in the Central Valley). This group is difficult both to identify and quantify, as the Huetar language comprised much of the communities in the Central Valley. Another reason for this difficulty is due to the widespread settlement patterns of those assumed to belong to the original group of Huetar peoples as they have separated for varied agricultural practices. Not much information is available due to the current dispersal of the tribe. However, they likely used to be a more violent tribe of individuals, killing their war prisoners and utilizing human sacrifice rituals at religious gatherings. Their artistic legacy lies in their stone carvings, in which they would depict various human figures as well as inscriptions.

Maleku

The Maleku are an indigenous group of about 650 people located in the San Rafael de Guatuso Indigenous Reserve. Today, their reservation spans around 3,000 hectares, but only around 15% of its inhabitants belong to the Maleku tribe. Students of Maleku schools not only learn about their own culture, but they also learn to speak their native language - a testament to the language's proximity to extinction (only a few hundred speakers of the language remain). The tribe relies on the interest of tourists, so they have used resources found in their forests to create art for sale to tourists in nearby La Fortuna.

Chorotega

The Chorotega are located in Guanacaste. Chorotega translates to "People Surrounded by Enemies", as they fled to Costa Rica to escape slavery in Southern Mexico. The tribe is related to Mayan and Aztec peoples, and these influences are apparent in their pottery, with figurines and instruments made for the purpose of participation in religious rituals. They were a powerful force against Spanish conquest in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; one battle was won by the Chorotega, with a group of Chorotegan women led by commander Biriteca at the forefront of this victory. The main downfall of this group is believed to be the enslavement of its people by the Spanish to work in the gold mines of Panama and Peru through the Atlantic slave trade.

Naso

Also called the Térraba or Teribe, there are about 3,800 known members of this group. The tribe follows a monarchical system, and the succession system looks different today than it should (based on the known traditions of the group). Before the 1980s, succession would move from the existing king to his brother and then to his eldest son; after the 1980s, succession is based on the votes of the adult population of the tribe. Art of the tribe consists of beads strung on nylon threads to be used as jewelry, which accompanies brightly-colored dress, often of geometric pattern as well. Other art consists of woven baskets and hammocks, as well as wood-carved utensils. The Naso peoples currently share the land of the mountains between Panama and Costa Rica with the Bribri, and both tribes have been fighting for the right to inhabit this land collectively.

Current Conflicts

Education

There is a standing conflict involving the issue that indigenous teachers and students are not receiving the same opportunities as their non-indigenous counterparts. Currently, Indigenous children have an illiteracy rate of thirty percent, nearly six times the rate of illiteracy for youth in Costa Rica as a whole. Especially since many indigenous groups in the nation, such as the Cabécar (as discussed above in the Groups section), utilize their own informal systems of education, it it important to consider that these schools do not receive national funding. Therefore, they must run self-sufficiently, compromising the ability of Indigenous educators to teach students with as many resources as non-indigenous schools.

Land issues

Of Costa Rica's 50,900 km² area of land, 7% of the land is formally recognized as indigenous territory. The major issues facing the indigenous groups of Costa Rica today mainly relate to land disputes. The Indigenous Law of Costa Rica was passed in 1977, declaring that Indigenous territories were to be used exclusively for Indigenous life. However, much of the land recognized as Indigenous territory is still being used by non-indigenous cattle ranchers, making this land unusable by indigenous tribes. Other violations of this Law include the use of indigenous land for petroleum mining. Indigenous communities have begun to grow impatient with the lack of implementation of this Law, resulting in violent conflicts that have already resulted in the assassinations of two Indigenous leaders.

Indigenous peoples oppose the current El Diquís Hydroelectric Project that will flood some of the lands and affect many of the other groups. It will affect seven of the indigenous territories, including Teribe and Boruca peoples). This will be the largest hydro-electric dam in Central America and will cut through nearly 200 historical sites and sacred grounds.

Healthcare

Indigenous peoples of Costa Rica often do not receive adequate healthcare services due to lack of access; they are situated in difficult terrain, particularly in the mountains. Indigenous peoples tend to rely on traditional medicinal practices. Only a small percentage of the Indigenous population has access to safe drinking water or sanitation services.Groups like CONAI (National Commission for Indigenous Affairs), working to improve socioeconomic situations of the Indigenous peoples, have tried to integrate modern and indigenous healthcares unsuccessfully, as this attempt resulted in the overshadowing of Indigenous traditional medicine by the more modern understanding of it. Another issue is that while some areas have built clinics, doctors are only available two days of the week.