Indigenous people of Costa Rica, or Native Costa Ricans, are the people 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.[1] Indigenous Costa Ricans strive to keep their cultural traditions and languages alive.
In 1977, the government passed the Indigenous Law, which created reserves. There are a total of 24 indigenous territories located throughout Costa Rica. After only gaining the right to vote in 1994, they are still fighting for their rights, particularly regarding the government taking over their land and ignoring the articles which protect them. 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.[1]
Indigenous Costa Ricans belong to eight major ethnic groups.[1]
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.[2][3] Its indigenous peoples have lived in Costa Rica for what stretches back to at least 10,000 years before the arrival of the Spaniards.[4]
The northwest of the country, the Nicoya Peninsula, was the southernmost point of Mesoamerican cultural influence when the Spanishconquerors came in the sixteenth century. The Nicoya culture was the largest cacicazgo on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.[2] 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.[3][5] The Diquis culture flourished from 700 CE to 1530 CE.[6]
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.[7]
About 2,660 people are in the Boruca tribe. They live in the Puntarenas area of Costa Rica on one of the first reservations that was established for indigenous Costa Ricans. They are popular for their crafts, particularly masks made for the "Fiesta de los Diablos" which is a three-day festival that stages fights between the Boruca people (depicted as devils) and the Spanish conquistadors (portrayed as Bulls).
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.[1] They are a voting majority in the Puerto Viejo de Talamanca area. The range of the population stretches from 11,000 to 35,000. 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 Bribis, 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.[8]
The Cabécar are the largest Indigenous group in Costa Rica and are considered to be the most isolated. They have been pushed up to the Chirripo Mountains, which requires a few hours long hike to reach. Therefore, the Cabécar have not been exposed to many basic items, and few of them have been exposed to education. They are very traditional and have preserved their culture. They speak mostly their own language rather than Spanish.
Guaymí, southern Costa Rica, along the Panamá border
The Guaymís, also known as the Ngabe are the group of the most people in Costa Rica. They emigrated from Panama to Costa Rica in the 1960s. Their main source of income is based on agriculture where they grow bananas, rice, corn, beans and more.
The Maleku are an indigenous group of about 600 people located in the San Rafael de Guatuso Indigenous Reserve. Before the Spanish colonization, their territory extended as far west as Rincon de la Vieja, and included the volcano Arenal to the south and Rio Celeste as sacred sites. Today their reserve is located about an hour north of La Fortuna. Although their land was much larger prior to colonization, they are now working on buying their own land back from the government. Their economy is based on indigenous art and many tourists are welcome to watch them perform musical pieces in nearby La Fortuna. This reservation is in great danger and the Maleku no longer live in their traditional houses as the trees are also endangered. They are working hard to protect their language, as there are only about 300 speakers of it.[9]
The Matambú, also known as the Chorotega are located in Guanacaste. The Chorotegas translates to "The Fleeing People", as they fled to Costa Rica in AD 500 to escape slavery in Southern Mexico. They are related to Maya people. Parts of their Mexican culture is evident in regards to their language and rituals, including human sacrifices.[clarification needed] They are known as being the most powerful group of peoples during the conquest of the Spanish, as they were an organized military group and fought against the Spanish. There is evidence that they were a democracy and elected Caciques, or priests to be the leaders, and also that they were a hierarchical group. They are known for their agriculture, producing primarily corn and their ceramics/pottery today.[10]
Térraba or Teribe, also called Naso, southern Costa Rica
There are about 3,305 Térraba people. As of 2007, the regional poverty rate was 19.3% while for the whole country it was about 3.3%. It is so high, because their forest land has been cleared over the years, which was used for their agriculture and predominant economy. They have not preserved their language as much, as mainly only the elders speak it. However, another, larger group of Teribe in Panama do use the language and the two groups are in contact.[11] A larger group from the tribe living in Panama does use the language and there are visits between the two groups.
There is a conflict over indigenous teachers and students are not receiving the same opportunities as the non indigenous peoples. There were two cases in Boruca and Teribe in which qualified indigenous teachers were not given jobs in the local schools. There is also the fact that the schools which the indigenous attend are not funded properly, and the students aren't given the same resources to learn. As for the universities, the indigenous are fighting to gain qualifications so that they can earn higher paying jobs.[12]
Land issues
Of Costa Rica's 50,900km2 area of land, 3,344 or 5.9% of the land is labeled as indigenous territories.[1] The major issues facing the indigenous groups of Costa Rica today mainly relate to land. The farmers and ranchers are not in charge of their own land that they work because they are considered to be on a reserve or because their land is in danger due to mining and oil work being done.
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 Bribi, Cabecar, Teribe, and Brunka. This will be the largest hydro-electric dam in Central America and will cut through nearly 200 historical sites and sacred grounds.[13]
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. Only about 26% of the Indigenous population have access to clean water. Therefore, the Indigenous peoples tend to rely on traditional medicinal practices. Groups like CONAI (National Commission for Indigenous Affairs), working to improve socioeconomic situations of the Indigenous peoples, have tried to integrate the two medicinal practices. This has been unsuccessful, as it resulted in bias and little acknowledgment of the Indigenous traditional ways. Some areas have built clinics, but doctors are available only two days of the week.[14]
The Chibchan languages make up a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian Area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of these countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. The name is derived from the name of an extinct language called Chibcha or Muisca, once spoken by the people who lived on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense of which the city of Bogotá was the southern capital at the time of the Spanish Conquista. However, genetic and linguistic data now indicate that the original heart of Chibchan languages and Chibchan-speaking peoples might not have been in Colombia, but in the area of the Costa Rica-Panama border, where the greatest variety of Chibchan languages has been identified.
Costa Rican culture has been heavily influenced by Spanish culture ever since the Spanish colonization of the Americas including the territory which today forms Costa Rica. Parts of the country have other strong cultural influences, including the Caribbean province of Limón and the Cordillera de Talamanca which are influenced by Jamaican immigrants and indigenous native people, respectively.
The Isthmo-Colombian Area is defined as a cultural area encompassing those territories occupied predominantly by speakers of the Chibchan languages at the time of European contact. It includes portions of the Central American isthmus like eastern El Salvador, eastern Honduras, Caribbean Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and northern Colombia.
The Naso or Teribe people are an indigenous people of Panama and Costa Rica. They primarily live in northwest Panama in the Bocas del Toro Province and Naso Tjër Di Comarca as well as in southern Costa Rica in the Puntarenas Province. There are roughly 3,500 people who belong to the Naso tribe. It is one of the few Native American indigenous groups or tribes that continues to have a monarchy.
The Bribri are an Indigenous people in eastern Costa Rica and northern Panama. Today, most Bribri people speak the Bribri language or Spanish.
Talamanca is a canton in the Limón province of Costa Rica. The head city is Bribri, located in Bratsi district.
Bribri, also known as Bri-bri, Bribriwak, and Bribri-wak, is a Chibchan language, from a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian Area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of those countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. As of 2002, there were about 11,000 speakers left. An estimate by the National Census of Costa Rica in 2011 found that Bribri is currently spoken by 54.7% of the 12,785 Bribri people, about 7,000 individuals. It is a tonal language whose word order is subject–object–verb.
Costa Rica's official and predominant language is Spanish. The variety spoken there, Costa Rican Spanish, is a form of Central American Spanish.
The pre-Columbian history of Costa Rica extends from the establishment of the first settlers until the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the Americas.
The Cabécar language is an indigenous American language of the Chibchan language family spoken by the Cabécar people in the inland Turrialba Region, Cartago Province, Costa Rica. As of 2007, 2,000 speakers were monolingual. It is the only indigenous language in Costa Rica with monolingual adults. The language is also known by its dialect names Chirripó, Estrella, Telire, and Ujarrás.
The Talamanca languages are a well-defined branch of Chibchan languages spoken in central–southern Costa Rica and northern Panama. They are:
Costa Ricans are the citizens of Costa Rica, a multiethnic, Spanish-speaking nation in Central America. Costa Ricans are predominantly Castizos, other ethnic groups people of Indigenous, European, African and Asian descent.
The Cabécar are an indigenous group of the remote Talamanca region of eastern Costa Rica. They speak Cabécar, a language belonging to the Chibchan language family of the Isthmo-Colombian Area of lower Central America and northwestern Colombia. According to census data from the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Costa Rica, the Cabécar are the largest indigenous group in Costa Rica with a population of nearly 17,000.
According to Costa Rica’s 1977 Indigenous Law, the Indigenous Territories are the traditional lands of the legally recognized indigenous peoples of Costa Rica. The Republic of Costa Rica recognizes eight native ethnicities; Bribris, Chorotegas, Malekus, Ngöbe, Huetars, Cabecars, Borucas and Terrabas.
The Kingdom of Talamanca was a political entity existing during the historic period covered from the Executive Decree issued by the Costa Rican government on July 25, 1867, recognizing the Talamanca indigenous monarchs as "political chiefs" of the region, until the death of their last king Antonio Saldaña in 1910, apparently poisoned, and who died without heirs thus putting an end to the line of succession.
Antonio Saldaña was a Bribri cacique and the last king of Talamanca in Costa Rica.
The Cacicazgo of Talamanca was a Costa Rican indigenous manor that existed prior to the Spanish conquest and during the colony. It had borders on the north with the kingdom of Tariaca, on the west with Chirripó and on the southeast with the river Changuinola, natural border with the Terbis. Within the kingdom coexisted two indigenous groups, the Bribris and the Cabécares.
Pablo Presbere was an Indigenous king of the community of Suinse, in the region that is now known as Talamanca, in the south-east of Costa Rica. He is remembered as the indigenous leader who led the aboriginal insurrection in "Tierra Adentro" against the Spanish authorities on September 29, 1709, in the course of which several friars and soldiers and the wife of one of these were killed and fourteen temples erected by the missionaries were set ablaze. The rebellion was supported by all the natives of Costa Rica from Cerro Chirripó to Isla Tojar, in Almirante Bay, Panama, with the exception of the Viceitas, and allowed the aboriginals to regain control of the territory of Talamanca, which became a refuge area during the colonial period of Costa Rica. He was known as the most feared warrior in Talamanca. Some sources argue that his original indian name "Pabru" means "chief of the macaw" and "Preberi" would be "Place of running waters". The macaw is a bird of religious significance for the Bribri people thus, some scholars argue that Presbere was actually a shaman or religious leader and not from a warrior caste, which may also explain both the respect that he inspired in other natives and the fear that the Spaniards had for him.
The Indigenous Territory of Kéköldi is one of the Costa Rican indigenous communities and one of the four of the Bribri people. It was created in 1977 and has about 210 inhabitants. It is located in the Talamanca-Caribe biological corridor that covers about 36,000 hectares in the canton of Talamanca, Limón Province. Since 1994, the reserve is run by the Kéköldi Wak ka Köneke Association, which works to preserve indigenous culture and purchase additional land to reforest and conserve. The majority of the population speaks both Bribri and Spanish. The reserve has a biological station for scientific research and a bird watching area for tourists.
The Bribri Talamanca Indigenous Territory is one of the four Costa Rican indigenous territories of the Bribri ethnic group. It borders the Talamanca Cabecar Indigenous Territory. It was created by decree in 1985 and is located in the canton of Talamanca, Limón Province. It covers an approximate area of 43,690 hectares of a predominantly mountainous area.
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