EASTERN COLOMBIA — CRIST AND GUHL 411 



with little thought of control measures to safeguard soil and water re- 

 sources (pi. 7, fig. 1). Between Santiago and San Francisco, via the 

 village of Sibuncloy, seat of the Capuchin Mission, the road hugs the 

 base of the steep north slope of a vast swampy basin, now drained by 

 the Putumayo River, that must originally have been overdeepened by 

 glacial action. Settlers have cleared the forest from the well-drained 

 and fertile alluvial fans deposited by the streams that empty into the 

 swamp, and have established thriving cattle ranches (pi. 8, fig. 1). 



The San Francisco-Mocoa sector crosses still another high pass, the 

 Paramo of Bichoy, before plunging eastward through many miles of 

 wild, rocky country, completely inhospitable to human settlement. 

 From the last defile, at about 6,500 feet, one can, in clear weather, dis- 

 cern the great valleys of the Putumayo and Caqueta Rivers with the 

 tiny settlements along them ; from there the road descends 1,000 meters 

 in 25 kilometers to Pepino, 10 kilometers from Mocoa, long the capital 

 of the Comisaria of Putumayo and the most important urban ag- 

 glomeration of the region ; it has three long streets cut by six short 

 ones, wide and well marked out. The authorities work and live in rela- 

 tively commodious municipal buildings. 



Puerto Limon, Urcusique, and Puerto Umbria, all are tiny bridge- 

 heads in the wilderness, settled mostly by hard-working people from 

 Narino, Antioquia, and Caldas. 



The Comisaria of Putumayo is the home of three cultural, racial, 

 and linguistic groups of Indians, the Ingano, Siona, and Kofan, who 

 were well adjusted to their environment but whose economy and social 

 organization were primitive. The settlers from the mountains made 

 these primitive Indians work for them ; they exploited them and took 

 advantage of them in many ways, with the result that the Indians 

 have fled to areas as yet untouched by the new settlers. The cultural 

 inferiority of those few who remain, to be seen in the Sibundoy valley 

 and around Mocoa, is reflected in their low social and economic stand- 

 ing in the community, where they are a prey to malaria, yellow fever, 

 influenza, and water-borne diseases, as well as to their "civilized" 

 fellows (pi. 7, fig. 2) . These primitive people are given little help to- 

 ward improving their agricultural techniques, although even now they 

 supply many of the "spearheads of penetration" with yuca, plantain, 

 corn, and vegetables. Nor is their artistry valued very highly, in the 

 making of pottery, baskets, and textiles, some of the finer examples of 

 which are veritable museum pieces. 12 



Some of the settlers who came as the Pasto-Mocoa road was opened 

 up had a little capital and a small fund of experience in living and in 



12 Chavez Milciades, La colonizacion de la Comisaria del Putmayo : un 

 problema etno-economico-geografico de importancia nacioual, Bol. Arqueol., vol. 1, 

 No. 6, pp. 567-598, 1945. 



