The Kuna Indians

The Kuna indians are natives of the San Blas reservation (comarca) on the Atlantic coast of Panama. They are a closely knit tribal society following the matriarchal system and are believed to be the descendants of the Carib.

The Kuna women cover their entire body when compared to the Embera. The Kuna's dress is made of Molas which are layered woven textiles with colourful figures. They also wear necklaces, anklets and nose rings. By tradition they live of fishing and go hunting and harvesting in the mainland. On the mainland Kuna Yala is separated from the province of Darien and the realm of the Embera by the continental divide. And it was here were the French and others originally planned to build a canal by cutting through the continental divide which they underestimated.

Obviously the Kuna have had their share of initial encounters with Europeans when these areas were spotted on the 4th voyage of Christopher Columbus. It was in San Blas (then part of the bigger Darien Ishtmus) where the Spaniars founded the 1st colony of central/south america in Santa Maria La Antigua del Darien. Likewise it was in the coasts of San Blas/Kuna Yala where the Scottish also made their colonization attempt with New Edinburgh.

The Kuna are very in much appreciative of their environment as they zealously protect their reservation and ecologic environment from exploitation and overuse. Unfortunately in the past few years they have also been suffering some attacks from Colombian paramilitary groups incursioning into their territory.

Officially they are part of Panama but as of the Kuna revolution of 1925 they became a semi-independent people with rights to manage their own affairs. They live in communities with tidy bamboo huts with dried palm leaves as ceiling (ranchos) and build together a central meeting place which is used for their celebrations and other gatherings.

As a result of their revolution in 1925 the Kuna created their own flag shown here on the left. That it is not usually seen in their settlements is unclear. As mentioned in the intro page, this inverted swastica has nothing to do with the Nazis though the original flag was redesigned (eliminated the red ring) in order to de-nazify it. The swastica in their flag is actually a symbol of their cosmogony representing the octopus. According to their culture the octopus is the creator of the universe and the four tentacles of the swastica point to the four cardinal points which gave rise to the rainbow, the sun, the moon and the stars.

Most of the Kuna population is in their native homeland in the Kuna Yala reservation (San Blas). There are also two other officially recognized reservations belonging to the Kuna. These are the districts of Madugandi in the eastern part of the province of Panama. The Kuna of Madugandi was created in 1996. There is also the Kuna of Wargandi which was created in 2000 in the western part of the province of Darien.

Also worth noting is the relatively high incidence of albinism within the Kuna population. Albino kuna men are relieved from the duties of men and usually join the women in the confection of Molas and their work is respected. Albino kunas are considered children of the moon and while some say they are considered sacred, there were times long long ago when the albino newborns were killed.

While visiting Panama city you should not be surprised to see Kuna women in their native dress. While they maintain their cultural identity there are relative large numbers of them who have moved to the capital (primarily).