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Indigenous People of Peru | Quechua Indians | Amazon River People

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Who are the indigenous people of Peru?

Here you'll find out how many tribes or groups of native Peruvian Indians exist in Peru as information on the major indigenous groups.






Indigenous - Definition of Indigenous People

Indigenous Women Dancing in CostumeIndigenous Women Dancing in Costume

First, what is an indigenous people?

  • There is no one official definition of the term indigenous.

  • Wikipedia sums up their definition in an opening line as "people, communities, and nations who are native to a particular area."

  • In regards to Peru, we will narrow it down to those native groups of people still living in Peru who have their own distinct language.

The major example would be the Quechua Indians, the biggest group of Peruvian "Indians" or natives that exists in Peru today.

On This Page:


Indigenous Woman of PeruIndigenous Woman of Peru

Indigenous People of Peru - Peru Language Groups

There are currently reported to be 92 separate and distinct languages spoken in Peru (Ethnologue: Languages of the World).

It's interesting to note that although the common language of Peru is Spanish, legally all indigenous languages are recognized as official languages now by the Peruvian government.

The sheer numbers, at first glance, may be surprising. However, compared to Mexico, for example (291 distinct languages), this is not an unusually large number of indigenous tribes, considering the remoteness of many of Peru's rain forest and cloud forest areas.

Indigenous People of Peru - Locations
Indigenous People of Peru - Amazon River People

Another factor is that, while there exist 92 individual groups of Peruvian Indians, most of these groups contain a very small comparative number of people. Some of the extremely-isolated indigenous tribes or groups may have become extinct since the last official count reported.







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