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Photo of a
Quecha people from the Andes Mountains in Peru with children who are carrying
grasses (oats, Avena sativa) which will be used to feed "cuy" (guinea
pigs, Cavia porcellus). The Quechuas are an indigenous people
native to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina. Generally, the
Quechuas do not refer to themselves as indígenas (Spanish for "indigenous") a
term that is usually reserved for natives from the Amazon River Basin.
Incredibly, there are far more Quechua speakers in the Andes Mountains in Peru (approximately 10 million)
compared to the largest Amazonian tribe in Peru (e.g. approximately 40
thousand speakers of Ashaninka). The Quechua people are also known as the
Runakuna, Kichwas, and Ingas. In Eduador, the Quechua people call
themselves and their language Kichwa or Quichua. In Colombia, the
Quechua-speaking people calls themselves Ingas. The Quechua speakers from Junín
and Ancash in Peru call themselves Runakuna (runa means “people” in
Quechua).
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