{{Short description|South American Indigenous people}} {{for|the language|Witoto language}} {{Infobox ethnic group | group = Witoto<br/>Huitoto | image = The Putumayo - the devil's paradise, travels in the Peruvian Amazon Region and an account of the atrocities committed upon the Indians therein (1913) (14802073753).jpg | caption = Witoto people in 1913 | population = 8,500<ref name=every>[http://www.everyculture.com/South-America/Witoto.html "Witoto."] ''Countries and Their Cultures.'' Retrieved 6 Dec 2011.</ref> | popplace = {{Flag|Colombia}}, {{Flag|Peru}} | rels = traditional tribal religion | langs = Witotoan languages: Ocaina language (oca), Witoto Proper: Minica Huitoto (hto), Murui Huitoto (huu), Nüpode (hux)<ref name=ethno>[http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=918-16 "Language Family Trees: Witotoan, Witoto."] ''Ethnologue.'' Retrieved 6 Dec 2011.</ref> | related = }} The '''Witoto''' (also '''Huitoto''' or '''Uitoto''') are an Indigenous people in southern Colombia and northern Peru.
One of the largest groupings within the Witoto people is the '''Murui Muina''', also known as '''Muina Murui''', peoples.
==History== The Witoto people (also spelt Huitoto or Uitoto) are a grouping of indigenous peoples in the Amazon basin, in areas now in northern Peru and southern Colombia.<ref name=brit>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/646188/Witoto "Witoto."] ''Encyclopædia Britannica.'' Retrieved 6 Dec 2011.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Huitotos {{!}} Indigenous Peoples {{!}} Intercontinental Cry |url=https://intercontinentalcry.org/indigenous-peoples/huitotos/ |access-date=2023-06-10 |language=en-US}}</ref>
They were once composed of 100 villages or 31 tribes, but disease and conflict have reduced their numbers. The Witoto first experienced contact with Europeans at the beginning of the 17th century. However, contact remained sporadic into the 19th century.<ref name=Olson>{{cite book |last= Olson |first= James Stuart |year= 1991 |title= The Indians of Central and South America: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=175c4xOpLtYC&q=Witoto|publisher= Greenwood Publishing Group|pages= 399–400|isbn= 0313263876 }}</ref> At the early 20th century, Witoto population was 50,000. The rubber boom in the mid-20th century brought diseases and displacement to the Witotos, causing their numbers to plummet to 7,000–10,000.<ref name=every/> The rubber boom also increased outside interest in the caucho extraction due to the surge in production and demand. In the Witoto region, Julio Cesar Arana was one of the main figures of the rubber industry. He founded the Peruvian Amazon Company, a business that extracted and sold Amazonian caucho rubber.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Vargas Álvarez|first=Sebastián|date=2017-12-31|title=Desmontando imágenes de diferencia. Representaciones de lo indígena en las conmemoraciones nacionales latinoamericanas|journal=Memoria y Sociedad|volume=21|issue=43|doi=10.11144/javeriana.mys21-43.didr|issn=2248-6992|doi-access=free|hdl=10554/27235|hdl-access=free}}</ref> The company relied on Indigenous, including Witoto, labor, and he kept his workers in unending servitude through constant debt and physical torture.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Santamaría|first=Angela|date=2017-09-02|title=Memory and resilience among Uitoto women: closed baskets and gentle words to invoke the pain of the Colombian Amazon|journal=Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies|volume=12|issue=3|pages=315–330|doi=10.1080/17442222.2017.1363352|s2cid=149174120|issn=1744-2222}}</ref> His practices had such a large negative impact on the surrounding Indigenous nations that, by the time the company’s work ended, Indigenous populations in the area had declined by more than half of their original numbers.<ref name="República">{{Cite web|url=http://www.banrepcultural.org/|title=La Red Cultural del Banco de la República|last=República|first=Subgerencia Cultural del Banco de la|website=www.banrepcultural.org|language=spanish|access-date=2019-05-08}}</ref>
Since the 1990s, cattle ranchers have invaded Witoto lands, depleted the soil, and polluted the waterways. In response to the incursions, the Colombian government established several reservations for Witotos.<ref name=every/>
==Subsistence== Witoto peoples practice swidden or slash-and-burn agriculture. To prevent depleting the land, they relocate their fields every few yields. Major crops include cacao, coca, maize, bitter and sweet manioc, bananas, mangoes, palms, pineapples, plantains, sugar cane, sweet potatoes, and yams. Tobacco and peanuts are also cultivated in small quantities. Ethnobotanists have studied Witoto agriculture due to its efficiency and sustainability.<ref name=every/>
Witoto men hunt with blowguns and shotguns.<ref name=every/> In 2023, four children, one less than a year old, managed to survive 40 days in the jungle after their plane had crashed, killing all adults, including their mother. Observers suggested that the lore they picked up from their kin earlier had helped them to forage for enough food to subsist on.<ref>Mat Youkee, [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/10/colombian-children-found-alive-five-weeks-after-amazon-jungle-plane-crash 'Colombian ‘miracle’ children found alive 40 days after Amazon jungle plane crash,'] The Guardian 10 June 2023</ref>
== Culture== Traditionally the Witoto are divided into a number of groups. The largest group are the Murui, who live on the western end of their historical territory. Another group, the Muinane, traditionally lived to the east of the Murui. Historically they were a large group but most were gradually absorbed into the Murui.<ref name=Olson/> The grouping is often referred to as "Muina Murui" (the language being "Murui-Muinanɨ",<ref>{{cite web | title=Muina Murui / Murui-Muinanɨ | website=Native-Land.ca | url=https://native-land.ca/listings/territories/muina-murui | access-date=24 February 2026}}</ref> or "Murui Muina". In Colombia, there is the Association of Murui Muina Town Councils of the Upper Caquetá river basin, or ASCAINCA (Spanish).<ref name="p861">{{cite web | title=Kabure, breath of life from the Amazon rainforest | website=The Nature Conservancy | date=23 September 2025 | url=https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/latin-america/colombia/stories-in-colombia/kabure-breath-life-amazon-rainforest/ | access-date=24 February 2026}}</ref> Living along the Caquetá River, one of their neighbouring tribes is the Koreguaje.<ref name=rasolt>{{Cite web |last=Rasolt |first=Daniel Henryk |date=2020-01-15 |title=The Koreguaje Tribe: Threatened Guardians of the Northwest Amazon|url=https://therevelator.org/koreguaje-amazon-guardians/ |access-date=2026-01-19 |website=The Revelator |language=en-US}}</ref>
A third group, the Meneca, live in the Putumayo and Ampiyacu riversheds. There are also a number of significantly smaller groups.<ref name=Olson/>
Traditionally, the Witoto people lived according to their patrilineal lineage. This practice is less common today, although some elders in the community continue the tradition. They live in communal houses known as ''joforomo'' or ''maloca'' that several families share. Every family has an independent sector where they can hang their hammocks. Their diets consist mainly of Casabe, arepas made with yuca brava flour, and protein from hunting and fishing. thumb|Witoto women body painting<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bulletin14331948smit|title=Bulletin|last=Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology|date=1901|publisher=Washington : G.P.O.|others=Smithsonian Libraries}}</ref> In their ''maloca'', men have a specific place where they can consume an ancestral green powder called ''mambe,'' or ''jiibie.'' This powder is made from coca leaves and the ashes of yarumo.{{cn|date=February 2026}}
Traditionally, when Witoto men consume ''mambe'' they play drums called Maguare, which can be heard kilometers away. The purpose of these drums is to communicate with nearby tribes.{{cn|date=February 2026}}
== Language == Funded by the Modern Endangered Archives Program at the UCLA library, the Universidad Nacional de Colombia digitized a large collection of recordings from three indigenous groups of the Colombian Amazon including the Magütá, Miraña and Murui.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Digital Archive of the Indigenous Languages of the Amazon / Archivo Digital de las Lenguas Indígenas de la Amazonia (ARDILIA) {{!}} Modern Endangered Archives Program |url=https://meap.library.ucla.edu/projects/indigenous-languages-of-the-amazon/ |access-date=2025-09-30 |website=meap.library.ucla.edu |language=en}}</ref> These three endangered languages have been collected and stored in order to maintain oral histories and traditions of these indigenous groups. These recordings are available digitally through the UCLA library.<ref>{{Cite web |title=MEAP Collection |url=https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/z1p08jwd |access-date=2025-09-30 |website=digital.library.ucla.edu}}</ref> thumb|Bora- Witoto Language<ref name="República"/>
==Notable people== *María Clemencia Herrera Nemerayema (born 1968), indigenous, women rights and biodiversity activist *Abel Rodríguez (died 2025), artist
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{commons category|Witoto people}} *[http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/15/huitoto-tribe-in-colombia-teaches-its-native-language-47022 "Huitoto Tribe in Colombia Teaches its Native Language"], ''Indian Country Today'' *{{cite book |last1=Whiffen |first1=Thomas |title=The north-west Amazons : notes of some months spent among cannibal tribes |date=1915 |publisher=New York: Duffield & Co. |isbn=978-1015246713 |url=https://archive.org/details/northwestamazons00whif_0}} *The Modern Endangered Archives Program at the UCLA library has a digital collection of Witoto [https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/z1p08jwd language].
{{Indigenous peoples of Brazil}} {{Colombian people}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Witoto People}} Category:Witoto Category:Indigenous peoples of the Amazon Category:Indigenous peoples in Colombia Category:Indigenous peoples in Peru