A brief history lesson

The Santiago River turns out to be one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.

From Nieva our small expedition travelled by boat for about 4 hours, down the Marañón and up the Santiago to Puerto Galilea (picture). Galilea is an indigenous Huambisa community, capital of the Rio Santiago district. It is directly next to a tiny mestizo settlement named La Poza, which has a couple of hotels and restaurants and is the main commercial centre for the area. From there our contact Leandro Calvo sent his son to bring us by pequepeque up to the village of Chapisa, about 3.5 hours further upriver.

Huambisa communities are found on the banks and tributaries of the Santiago from Galilea north to the border with Ecuador, and across the Cordillera Campanquis on the Morona River. Downriver from Galilea the indigenous communities are all Aguaruna.

Historical records show that the traditional homeland of the Jivaro people was on the upper Santiago River, and they have expanded from there in all directions. The following account describes a voyage made in 1656:

“[Padre Raymundo] Diſpuſo ſus embarcaciones, y navegando el Marañon arriba, llegò à las juntas de el Rio de Santiago, y navegando por èl contra la corriente, dentro de pocos dias diò viſta à la Provincia de los Xibaros...”

"Padre Raymundo embarked on his journey, and travelling up the Marañón, arrived at the mouth of the Santiago, and travelling up that river after a few days he sighted the province of the Xibaros."

A German missionary, von Murr, described a similar situation in 1785:

“Die Wohnsitze der Xibaros erſtrecken ſich durch meiſtens unwegſame Berge und Thäler, mit denen beyderſeits der obere Santyagofluß weit und breit umrungen iſt, und mit welchen ſie die Natur ſelbſt wider alle feindliche Anfälle beſtens verſchanzet hat.”

"The residences of the Xibaros stretch through mostly impenetrable mountains and valleys, with which both banks of the upper Santiago River are surrounded far and wide, and by means of which Nature itself has protected them very well against all enemy attacks."

The "impenetrable mountains and valleys" are still the most strikingly beautiful feature of the Santiago valley.

In 1740 a map appeared placing "Xibaros" on the mid and upper Santiago and "Ahuarunes" on the left bank of the Marañón, just west of the mouth of the Santiago. This was, as far as I know, the first mention of the ethnonym that is now spelled "Aguaruna". Since then they have expanded as far as Bagua to the West, Moyobamba to the South and Loreto to the East.