1 ORAL HISTORY OF THE KUNA & PANAMA from the late 19th century to 1925 Carlos L6pez, Kuna traditionalist & Chief recorded 1985 For a moment we will hear about how the place is coming. Since the young men wish to learn about the fathers who carried the place for us, for a moment I will say a few things to the young men. PANAMANIAN INDEPENDENCE Thus the place continued on, at the time when Colombia still held all the land, the elders say. Whatever year it might have gone, the elders say. . . . Then one day Inanakinya [chief of all the coastal Kuna] called again to all his followers. When he called to all his followers, Inanakinya began to sing to them, they say: "Now, I will not divorce my old wife on you," he said. "I have a good wife," he said. "I have an hard-working wife," he said. "A wife who is up at dawn cooking me banana drink, that's what I have," Inanakinya was singing to the elders. "Not one who leaves me without clean clothes on the crossbeam, with clothes strewn around," he said. I have a wife who is up washing clothes for me at dawn... My old woman... If I married a young woman on you, I wouldn't work out for you," he said. I would be getting a woman to be lazy on you," elder sang. "Therefore I don't want a young wife. A wife who gets up at mid-morning, I don't want at all," he said. That's how elder sang, they say. . . . Grandfather was singing in metaphors. And the elders, in the old days, understood everything, so right away they understood him. Like that. The elders already knew that Panama held the land. But elder sang, "I will not forget Colombia," he was saying. That's what the old woman referred to. The young woman meant, "I'd accept Panama." Elder sang to his followers about Panama as a young person who still didn't have anything. [When Inanakinya died, the Kuna confederacy split into two groups: those who took Cimral Colman as their leader leaned towards Panama; those who followed Inapakinya (nephew of the late Inanakinya) stayed with Colombia.] And then the elders went their separate ways, the elders went off, they say. The elders broke [the confederation] into pieces like that, they say. Suitup hung with Grandfather Colman, they say. Carti Tuppir hung with Grandfather Colman, they say... Manti Upikantup also went with Inapakinya. They were breaking the place into pieces on us. That's how things were: in 1903, Inatoikinya [modernist chief of Tupile or Mono] first grasped the Panamanian flag . . . Sali Robinson also grasped the flag . .. Their history is like that. It came to be that the flag was grasped. Though schools had yet to be seen. That year began, in 1909 [actually 1907] and Father Gasso first entered... Sali Robinson also brought him in. Things began to happen on us. I�Lsl_______lllD____3t--�-2 The place began to come alive, the elders say. POACHING OF KUNA RESOURCES Thus the place was coming, coming. .. . and the wagas. [non-Indians, Latins] who fell Nispero trees [tapped for balata, a form of rubber] were the first to begin entering, into this land. In the forest the Nispero-cutters began to enter... The waga began to fell Nispero. The waga began to shoot jaguars. The waga began to shoot caimans. Schools had still yet to be seen.. "Things were touched first,... the trees were the first to be touched," the elders say. Then in the forest, our fathers and the waga began to strike each other, things began to happen that way. In the forest they finished off one whole kind of resource, and so they began to turn towards [exploiting] the sea. The waga began to set nets too. The islands along here, the elders felt they were theirs, so they would go to wait for the turtles,... and the waga would already be there before you, waiting for the turtles. The turtles began to be taken from you. The turtles began to be taken from our fathers. Coconuts began to be cut too. They would drink coconut milk, knock down coconuts, the waga began to act that way. The fathers took stock of how things stood, and there were nets set everywhere. Our fathers already set nets too. They began to fight with each other over this, about the sea; the Kuna with the waga and with the English [prob English-speaking Blacks]. They began to have fights. A GOVERNMENT HEADQUARTERS IS ESTABLISHED Things were like that... Grandfather Colman began to think: "If things are happening like this, things won't turn out well for us, as I see it." Grandfather Porra [i.e. President Belisario Porras] was there. He visited San Blas [in 1915]. Grandfather Colman went off to Panama. He said to Grandfather Porras, "This Porvenir [an island at the end of San Blas closest to Panama], I want to put a gate there... "Here I'll place a cat," he said. "The cat which I'll put here is to catch rats for me," Colman said. . When Grandfather Colman said this to him, Porras felt it would be easy. "We're in agreement on this." They went to San Blas. With his followers, he brought police. They began to look for a place. "Where will we find a seat for the intendencia? [government headquarters]" They began to look for a place. . . . Thus they refused him... they came to Naraskantup [Orange Island], searching for a place, to hear that issue. Then the waga was ready to disembark; so Colman could resolve this issue. . "We disembarked," elder Ceferino [son of Chief Colman, source of information for the narrator] said. My father got in the hammock. The Colombian flag was flying, at Naraskantup Tummat. Thus we disembarked, and my father began to speak," he said. "'Now elders, you see. I want to put a portal here," he said. 'The coconuts being stolen from you, the turtles being caught just as if you weren't owners of the islands, the wagas do this to the Kuna, you're things are being touched---the door I will place here is so the waga won't enter like that again, so they he'll only enter the right way."' Thus Colman spoke. �1� �*�1�11��� _ I p� __3 The elders were mad, he said. The elders were really mad. With their faces all red, they said, "Kuna like this are just blowhards; They [foolishly] think they'll do such things." "They said that to my father," Elder Ceferino said to me. Kaikirkortup was the island's name, they say. The Kuna living there used to call it that, Kaikirkortup. But the waga renamed it "El Porvenir [The Future]," they say. "Right here," they said. They looked the place over, and the wagas all disembarked. Every last one really looked the place over