Quechua

A Quechua mother in Cuzco, Peru, carrying her child in a traditional sling of colourful woven cloth. The majority of the population of the city are Quechua.

The largest group of American Indians living in South America. The Quechua live in the Andean region. Their ancestors included the Inca, who established the Quechua language in the region, now the second official language of Peru and widely spoken as a lingua franca in Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Argentina, and Chile; it belongs to the Andean-Equatorial family.

The Peruvian government reached an agreement with Shell and Mobil May 1996 to exploit the Camisea gas field, thought to be the largest gas deposit in South America. It lies under land occupied by the Quechua and other indigenous peoples in the Urubamba River basin.