Lakandon Chʼol

The Lakandon Chʼol of the time of the Spanish conquest should not be confused with the modern Yucatec-speaking Lacandon people occupying the same region.Pons Sáez 1997, p. v. Eroza Solana 2006, p. 7. At the time of Spanish contact in the 16th century, the Lacandon Jungle was inhabited by Chʼol people referred to as Lakam Tun. This name was hispanicised, first to El Acantun, then to Lacantun and finally to Lacandon.Pugh 2009, p. 369. The main Lakandon village was situated on an island in Lake Miramar, also referred to as Lakam Tun by the inhabitants.Pons Sáez 1997, p. xii. The Lakandons, together with their equally unconquered Itza enemies to the northeast, had an especially warlike reputation among the Spanish.Houwald 1984, p. 257. Vos 1980, 1996, pp. 15-16.

{{Maya civilization}}

Hernán Cortés first heard of the existence of the Lakandon when he was passing through Kejache territory in 1524, although he did not actually contact them.Pons Sáez 1997, p. xiii. During the 16th century, the Spanish colonial authorities in Verapaz, within the Captaincy General of Guatemala, complained that baptised Maya were fleeing colonial towns in order to find refuge among the independent Lakandon and their Manche Chʼol neighbours.Lovell 2000, p. 415. The first Spanish expedition against the Lakandons was carried out in 1559, commanded by Pedro Ramírez de Quiñones.Lovell 2005, pp. 78, 243n19.

At the end of the 16th century, under pressure from the advancing Spanish frontier, the Lakandon Chʼol abandoned Lakam Tun and withdrew deeper into the forest to the southeast where they founded a new town, Sakbʼajlan, within a wide curve of the Lacantún River.Vos 1980, 1996, p.15. Jones 2000, p. 362. The name of the town translated as "white jaguar". The Lakandons had two other settlements further east, called Map and Peta.Vos 1980, 1996, p.15.

During the course of the 17th century, the Lakandon Chʼol raided the Guatemalan Highlands to such an extent that it was considered unsafe to travel in the region surrounding San Mateo Ixtatán and Santa Eulalia in the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes, within the colonial Corregimiento de Totonicapán y Huehuetenango administrative division.Limón Aguirre p. 12. In response, the colonial authorities placed garrisons in both towns in order to protect the local inhabitants against Lakandon raids, with limited success.Lovell 2005, p. 82. The Lakandon Chʼol traded with the colonial Maya towns of Cobán and Cahabón in Alta Verapaz, receiving quetzal feathers, copal, chile, cotton, salt and Spanish-produced iron tools in exchange for cacao and achiote.Caso Barrera and Aliphat 2007, pp. 49, 51. From time to time the Spanish launched punitive military expeditions against the Lakandons to try to stabilise the northern frontier of the Guatemalan colony; the largest expeditions took place in 1685 and 1695.Lovell 2005, p. 181.

{{main|Spanish conquest of Chiapas#Conquest of the Lacandon Forest, 1559–1695}}

Franciscan friars Antonio Margil and Melchor López were active among the Lakandon and Manche Chʼol between 1692 and 1694; they eventually outstayed their welcome and were expelled by the Chʼol.Webre 2004, p. 11. Most of the Lakandon Chʼol were forcibly relocated to the Huehuetenango area by the Spanish in the early 18th century. The resettled Lakandon Chʼol were soon absorbed into the local Maya populations there and ceased to exist as a separate ethnicity.Jones 2000, p. 365. The last known Lakandon Chʼol were three Indians that were recorded as living in Santa Catarina Retalhuleu in 1769.Vos 1980, 1996, p. 17.

{{Portal|Mesoamerica|Indigenous peoples of the Americas}}

• Acala Chʼol
• Amerindian
• Indigenous peoples of the Americas
• Genetic history of indigenous peoples of the Americas

{{Reflist|2}}

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• {{cite journal |author=Caso Barrera, Laura |author2=Mario Aliphat |year=2007 |title=Relaciones de Verapaz y las Tierras Bajas Mayas Centrales en el siglo XVII |journal=XX Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2006 |editor=J.P. Laporte |editor2=B. Arroyo |editor3=H. Mejía |pages=48–58 |publisher=Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología |location=Guatemala City, Guatemala |oclc=173275417 |url=http://asociaciontikal.com/pdf/04_-_Caso.06_-_www.pdf |access-date=2012-01-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017041731/http://asociaciontikal.com/pdf/04_-_Caso.06_-_www.pdf |archive-date=2013-10-17 |language=es}}
• {{cite book |author=Eroza Solana |author2=Enrique |year=2006 |title=Lancandones |series=Pueblos indígenas del México contemporáneo |isbn=970-753-049-9 |oclc=71844580 |publisher=Comisión Nacional para el Desarollo de los Pueblos Indígenas |location=Mexico City, Mexico|language=es}}
• {{cite journal |author=Houwald, Götz von |author-link=Götz von Houwald |year=1984 |title=Mapa y Descripción de la Montaña del Petén e Ytzá. Interpretación de un documento de los años un poco después de la conquista de Tayasal |journal=Indiana |issue=9 |url=http://www.iai.spk-berlin.de/fileadmin/dokumentenbibliothek/Indiana/Indiana_9/IND_09_von_Houwald.pdf |publisher= Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut |location=Berlin, Germany |access-date=2013-10-25 |oclc=2452883 |issn=0341-8642|language=es}}
• {{cite book |author=Jones, Grant D. |year=1998 |title=The Conquest of the Last Maya Kingdom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PeOWl54Mt7UC&pg=RA2-PT82 |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Stanford, California, USA |isbn=9780804735223 }}
• {{cite book |author=Jones, Grant D. |year=2000 |chapter=The Lowland Maya, from the Conquest to the Present |editor=Richard E.W. Adams |editor2=Murdo J. Macleod |title=The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, Vol. II: Mesoamerica, part 2 |location=Cambridge, UK |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=346–391|isbn=0-521-65204-9 |oclc=33359444}}
• {{cite web|author=Limón Aguirre, Fernando |year=2008 |title=La ciudadanía del pueblo chuj en México: Una dialéctica negativa de identidades |publisher=El Colegio de la Frontera Sur – Unidad San Cristóbal de Las Casas |location=San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico |url=http://www.ciesas.edu.mx/proyectos/relaju/cd_relaju/Ponencias/Mesa%20Valladares-Castro/LimonAguirreFernando.pdf |access-date=2013-10-25 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402122802/http://www.ciesas.edu.mx/proyectos/relaju/cd_relaju/Ponencias/Mesa%20Valladares-Castro/LimonAguirreFernando.pdf |archive-date=2012-04-02 |language=es}}
• {{cite book |author=Lovell, W. George |year=2000 |chapter=The Highland Maya |editor=Richard E.W. Adams |editor2=Murdo J. Macleod |title=The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, Vol. II: Mesoamerica, part 2 |location=Cambridge, UK |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=392–444|isbn=0-521-65204-9 |oclc=33359444}}
• {{cite book |author=Lovell, W. George |year=2005 |title=Conquest and Survival in Colonial Guatemala: A Historical Geography of the Cuchumatán Highlands, 1500–1821 |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |location=Montreal, Canada |edition=3rd |isbn=0-7735-2741-9 |oclc=58051691 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=05wSqQiu52MC}}
• {{cite book |author=Pons Sáez, Nuria |year=1997 |title=La Conquista del Lacandón |publisher=Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México |location=Mexico |isbn=968-36-6150-5 |oclc=40857165|language=es}}
• {{cite book |author=Pugh, Timothy W. |year=2009 |chapter=The Kowoj and the Lacandon: Migrations and Identities |editor=Prudence M. Rice |editor2=Don S. Rice |title=The Kowoj: identity, migration, and geopolitics in late postclassic Petén, Guatemala |location=Boulder, Colorado, US |publisher=University Press of Colorado |pages=368–384|isbn=978-0-87081-930-8 |oclc=225875268}}
• {{cite journal |title=Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Reports on the Chol Mayas | author=Thompson, J. Eric S. |journal=American Anthropologist |date=October–December 1938 |volume=40 |issue=4 (Part 1) |series=New Series |pages=584–604 |jstor=661615 |publisher=Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association |doi=10.1525/aa.1938.40.4.02a00040}} {{subscription required}}
• {{cite book |author=Vos, Jan de |orig-year=1980|year=1996 |title=La paz de Dios y del Rey: La conquista de la Selva Lacandona (1525-1821) |publisher=Secretaría de Educación y Cultura de Chiapas/Fondo de Cultura Económica |location=Mexico City, Mexico |isbn=968-16-3049-1 |oclc=20747634 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ObxVAAAAMAAJ|language=es}}
• {{cite web |author=Webre, Stephen |url=http://www.hcentroamerica.fcs.ucr.ac.cr/Contenidos/hca/cong/mesas/cong7/docs/1_14.doc |year=2004 |title=Política, evangelización y guerra: Fray Antonio Margil de Jesús y la frontera centroamericana, 1684–1706 |work=VII Congreso Centroamericano de Historia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras, Tegucigalpa, 19–23 July 2004 |format=DOC |access-date=2012-12-09 |publisher=Universidad de Costa Rica, Escuela de Historia |location=San José, Costa Rica |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141102195638/http://www.hcentroamerica.fcs.ucr.ac.cr/Contenidos/hca/cong/mesas/cong7/docs/1_14.doc |archive-date=2 November 2014 |language=es}}

{{refend}}

{{Ancestry and ethnicity in Guatemala}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Maya peoples

Category:History of Chiapas

Category:History of Guatemala

Category:Former indigenous peoples in Guatemala

Category:Maya Contact Period

Category:Chʼol