Tetete people
Encyclopedia
The Tetete were a small group of Western Tucanoan speakers living in the Ecuadorian Amazon or Oriente. Today, their territory would lie within Ecuador’s Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve
, a popular site for ecotourism
. From 1877 through the 1920s, however, Ecuadorian and Colombian rubber collectors (caucheros) and their native press gangs worked this part of the upper Aguarico and Putumayo watersheds, shooting or kidnapping Tetete people whenever they showed themselves. Sometime before 1940, most of the remaining Tetete were killed in a raid by neighboring Siona
people. “On a sandbar, the two groups faced each other in long lines and began to fight. Very soon, the Siona won; a few Tetete escaped, others died, and several were wounded…Later, a Siona man found them fishing on Lake Cuyabeno, and they wounded him slightly in the shoulder…After that, we never saw them again.”. A persistent legend claims that large numbers were driven to extinction by missionaries and petroleum companies after oil exploration began nearby in 1964. However, when they were “rediscovered” by Catholic priests in 1966, only three elderly survivors remained. Their last contact with outsiders – an American Evangelical missionary and his Siona-Secoya translators – occurred in 1973.
Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve
The Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve is a humid tropical rainforest protected zone in Ecuador. It is situated in the Putumayo Canton in the Sucumbíos Province and in the Aguarico Canton in the Orellana Province. It was founded on 26 July 1979. At an altitude of 200– 280 meters, one of the principle...
, a popular site for ecotourism
Ecotourism
Ecotourism is a form of tourism visiting fragile, pristine, and usually protected areas, intended as a low impact and often small scale alternative to standard commercial tourism...
. From 1877 through the 1920s, however, Ecuadorian and Colombian rubber collectors (caucheros) and their native press gangs worked this part of the upper Aguarico and Putumayo watersheds, shooting or kidnapping Tetete people whenever they showed themselves
Siona
Siona may refer to:* Siona, a genus of Geometer moth* The Siona people of the Ecuadorian Amazon**The Siona language* Siona Atreides, a fictional character in Frank Herbert's Dune universe...
people. “On a sandbar, the two groups faced each other in long lines and began to fight. Very soon, the Siona won; a few Tetete escaped, others died, and several were wounded…Later, a Siona man found them fishing on Lake Cuyabeno, and they wounded him slightly in the shoulder…After that, we never saw them again.”