The Indigenous People of Panama

If anyone thinks of the native people of Panama it is most likely the Kuna of the San Blas archipelago that come to mind with the women in their colorful molas blouses, their gold nose piercings and their beaded leg attire. The Kuna are, in fact, photographically exploited by tourist sites promoting Panama.

But there are five other native American tribes in Panama and some much larger than

the Kuna. The

Ngöbe-Buglé tribe is by far the largest

indigenous group in Panama. The 2000 Panamanian census cites 110,080 Ngöbe-Buglé Indians in Panama, forming 63.6% of

the national Indian population.

While visiting Santiago, Panama, recently I spent a couple of hours at the bus depot waiting in the wrong location for my bus to Chitré, but for an inveterate people watcher like myself I enjoyed the two hour wait for a bus that departs every half hour.

It’s quite easy to spot the indigenous population in Guatemala.

Many of the Mayans there look as if they had stepped right off of one of the pyramids. In the central part of Panama it’s as easy to spot the Ngöbe Buglé as well. At least the women. Just as the Kuna women are easily identified by their dress, so too are the Ngöbe-Buglé women who wear what is known as the enagua (pronounced nah wa). It is a shapeless dress not unsimilar to the mu-mu of Hawaii. They are all bright primary colors, reds, yellows, purples, blues and greens with brightly decorated collars, waists and hems. I saw literally hundreds of Ngöbe-Buglé women at the depot arriving from, and presumably returning to, the mountains.

There is also a tribe known as the Embera with a population of

around 15,000 who live, along with the Wounaan, primarily in the rainforest of the Darien. The Darien is a nearly impassable swampy wilderness area separating Panama from Colombia, though some Embera are also found in the Chagres National Park, around the Canal. While the women are often bare-breasted at home they also have wonderful breast-plates made from silver and nickel coinage.

The Naso Indians, with a population of about 3,500, live in small communities along the Teribe River in Bocas del Toro province. The Naso have retained their own language, and are taking steps to preserve their disappearing traditions. The Shaman's Apprentice Program now encourages Naso to preserve the knowledge of traditional medicine. Handicrafts are made by local community members. ASOMETRAN has established medicinal plant gardens in three Naso communities and established a small herbarium of dried plants. Wekso Ecolodge plan to produce a book on medicinal plants and Naso culture and establish a 10-hectare medicinal plant forest.

Finally there are the Bribri who live in the mountains and low-lying Caribbean coastal areas of southern Costa Rica and northern Panama on the Talamanca reservation. There are an estimated 5,200 Bribri who have maintained their indigenous customs and language. One small tribe of the Bribri, the Kekoldi, only has about 200 people. The Kekoldi farm iguanas in order to keep up the iguana population, which was in danger of being over hunted. The iguanas are farmed for their eggs which are hatched, then when the iguanas reach 5 years old, they are released into the forest.