20 .BULLETIN 134, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Caribbean island studded coast, known also as the Tule or, more 

 popularly, the San Bias, " Samballoes " (Wafer). The name was 

 given by Christopher Columbus in honor of Saint Blasius, to the 

 island archipelago which they inhabit. They represent a large tribal 

 group belonging to the Cuna stock. 



As has been noted before, there are many tribal names known 

 to the Indians themselves and many additional names that have 

 been given to the Indians of particular localities. Where culture 

 and physical type of the native groups are identical, it is confusing 

 to thus use purely local names as tribal, so that in this handbook 

 but three tribal designations are employed: Choco, as applied to 

 the natives of the southern slope; Cuna, designating the interior 

 groups; and Tule, including the Caribbean coast natives from the 

 Gulf of San Bias southeastward to the Gulf of Darien on the 

 Colombia border. 



The occupation of the present area of the Canal Zone by an in- 

 trusive white element as early as 1519, the later encroachments by 

 the enslaved Negroes; and the still more recent influx of laborers 

 of all races and nationalities during the building of the Panama 

 Canal, has separated the native Indian tribes into two groups and 

 has led to the extinction of at least one tribe, the Doraskeans, in 

 Chiriqui Province, western Panama. The Guaymie, Talamanca, 

 Guatuso, and other tribes live in western Panama and are separated 

 by the Canal Zone and the surrounding country, which is occupied 

 by the Whites and Negroes, from southeastern Panama. The eth- 

 nology of these tribes will be only casually referred to here. Lin- 

 guistically, they belong to the same Indian ethnic stock as do the 

 Cuna and the Tule, namely, the Chibchan; their culture, however, 

 differs in many essentials and resembles more that of the Costa 

 Rican tribes than the culture traits of the Darien Indian tribes. 



The Tule or To wall Indians. — The Indians, 8 in number, 5 adults 

 and 3 children, that R. O. Marsh brought with him on his return 

 from the San Bias coast in 1921, were measured anthropometrically 

 by Dr. A. Hrdlicka, of the National Museum. He finds that the 

 measurements taken indicate a similarity in physical type to the 

 Maya of Yucatan, Mexico, on the north and to the ancient Peruvians 

 on the south. Whatever their past tribal connections may have 

 been, the Indians of the San Bias coast have no tradition of any 

 other tribal origin or racial affiliations than that they were created 

 by the God, Olokkuppilele, at Tacarcuna Mountain, west of the 

 mouth of the Atrato River. The Tule have a well organized poli- 

 tical organization under the control of seven chiefs. The chief of 

 all the Tule speaking Indians of the coast is known as " Sakla 

 Tomale." The chief, Igwa Nigdibippi, claims to have 20 islands un- 

 der his control. The chief is elected by unanimous vote of the married 



