The people of the Amazon cannot be explained without first telling the story of how the Amazon got it's name. There was a man named Francisco de Orellana who was a Spanish conquistador. He was the first man to travel the entire Amazon River in 1541-1542. While on their journey, he and his men ran into a fierce tribe of women warriors. Each fought, as stated by Orellana, "like ten indians put together". That earned them and the river the name of "Amazonas". These Amazon women were some of the many indigenous people, or natives, that Orellana would run into. Many of these indigenous people were sold as slaves.

   Now I shall tell you of two of the groups of people that still live there today.

 Mestizos
    When the indigenous peoples, or native peoples, had children with the Europeans, they created a race of people called Mestizos. These Mestizos now make up most of the population of the Amazon. In the Ecuadorian Amazon, the population went from 60,000 in the 1950's to 350,000 now. The rain forest is getting cut down for buildings, homes, farming, and extracting petroleum. This has made quite an impact, even though the Mestizos are fighting the destruction.
 

Quichua
   Not all indigenous, or native, people wanted to keep their original rain forest. The Quichua peoples cut down the rain forest to farm the land. After they cut down the original rain forest, they tried to rotate crops and create secondary forests. This allows nutrients to be returned to the soil. The animals and old plants could never return.
   Some of the crops they grew have never been seen anywhere else. They grew manoic, which is also called cassava and yucca. It is a basic, bland tasting food that is rather starchy. They also grow plantains, which look like large bananas. They can be picked green of yellow. The Quichua also add sweet potatoes, chili peppers, fruits, and nuts from the forest. They also find fried queen ants a delicacy with manoic.
     Quichuas also eat small birds and animal. They use a blowgun to shoot animals but now, they have almost completely been replaced by rifles. The most common game is an animal called paca and it's larger cousin agoutis. They also hunt monkeys, wild pigs, rabbits, deer, birds, and fish.