Huni Kuin Tribe

The Huni Kuin tribe lives in small communities located from the foothills of the Peruvian Andes to the Brazilian border, in the states of Acre and South Amazonas, covering the area of ​​Alto Juruá, Purus and the Javari valley.

Territory

Their mother tongue is Hatxa Kuin, “the language of truth”, from which their name is derived: Huni, which means “man”, “kuin”, which means “true”. The Huni Kuin call themselves “true man”. Today almost all of them are bilingual (they speak Spanish or Portuguese, depending on the area) in order to be able to interact and sometimes trade with the outside world, although within their communities they only speak their mother tongue.

This tribe is divided into small communities or villages that remained isolated until 1946 in the virgin forest, far from the rivers that merchants navigated, some of which still have practically no contact with the Western world today. In recent decades they have experienced a great change both in terms of internal exodus (many Peruvian populations have moved to the Brazilian side), and in their way of life.

The Huni Kuin are also called kaxinawá, perhaps because of their ability to move at night in the jungle, since “kaxi” means “bat” in Hatsa Kuin.

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Huni Kuin Life