U'wa

A Native South American people, numbering approximately 5,000, who live in the eastern foothills of the Andes in Colombia near the Venezuelan border. They subsist by hunting, fishing and gathering along with some agriculture and are one of the few indigenous groups in Columbia who have managed to maintain their ancestral culture. Their society lacks social stratification, and political authority is based on age. They believe that the Earth gave them life and that their territory and forests are sacred. Their language belongs to the Chibcha language family.

In 1992 Occidental Petroleum signed a contract with the Colombian government to explore for oil in their territory. The U'wa consider that drilling for oil wounds ‘Mother Earth’. In February 1997, the Colombian government ruled that the State's right to develop its natural resources superseded the U'wa's constitutional right to consultation and defence of its cultural identity. The U'wa then threatened to commit mass suicide by walking off a 1,400-foot cliff. A village of U'wa people jumped to their deaths from the cliff in the late 17th century to avoid colonization by Spanish missionaries. In May 1998, after protests by U'wa activists in Los Angeles, Occidental Petroleum announced it would not explore for oil on lands claimed by the U'wa.