With the consent of local Mamas, Fundación Escuela Sintana y Tierra Negra was established to advocate for the preservation and defense of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and those who live there, on the traditional lands of the ancient Tayrona culture, by a group of concerned non-indigenous Colombians who have embraced the Kogi lifestyle for more than 50 years.
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GENERAL GOALS
To promote and generate cultural exchanges, studies with scientific investigation, benevolent acts, improvements to the quality of life and common well-being, and provide social services to indigenous communities. To be a bridge between the traditional wisdom of those who live integrated with nature and the actions of contemporary urban society, and to contribute to the dynamic evolution of the diverse branches of human life.
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Our Foundation takes its name from the Kogi creation myth. "… So, in the House of Sea-Foam, Sintana was formed, the first man. With Sintana light was created, it was the morning of the first day of creation."
The first man, made on the first day. Mama – man of the Sun. The first illuminated one. Light itself. The Sun. The radiance of our inner light. Tierra Negra, Seinake, Sintana's wife, was fertility itself. Wherever they made love, the soil became black and fertile. And thus, they populated the Earth. |
LATEST NEWS
2023-3 Adding Walls to Ugaeichi Guesthouse.
Thanks to a recent donation from long-time supporters in Saint Augustine Florida, we were able to buy bricks to enclose the guesthouse on Ugaeichi and the walls are going up. Flooding washed away some fill so that was reinforced also. |
2023-2 Kogi Stay at Ugaeichi.
Tayrona descendants still visit the ocean to do rituals and collect shells. Kogi families stay in the kiosk at Ugaeichi, in the Cabañas de Buritaca, where they have a place to cook and sleep until they are ready to go back to their homes high in the Sierra Nevada. |
2023-3 Work on Tierra Negra and Mosty Puentes Visit.
The indigenous people have gotten more permissions from the mamas to move around, although they are still cautious about Covid. A Kogi family helped Itamar and Jeroham clean around the recently planted fruit trees on Tierra Negra and along borders of the Foundation land. Representatives from Fundacion Mosty Puentes visited from the Czech Republic. They were accompanied by a wiwa mama from another part of the Sierra who came to see our project. |
2022-9 Clearing Paths
With helpful volunteers paths leading to the high terraces are being cleared. They also cleaned around the sacha inchi plants. We have a press to squeeze the omega-rich oil from the seeds with. |
2022-8 Planting Fruit Trees, Hardwoods and Food Crops. Wild Animals Seen.
Work has been done to the house/reception area on Tierra Negra. We are building a stone containment wall against the embankment. The terraces around the house and kitchen are planted with hayo, culinary and medicinal herbs, and flowers. The coconut palms that were one of the first things the Foundation planted on the newly acquired land are fruiting now, with nutritious cocos. The kitchen has a practical new alberca, an above ground water tank, made of stone. For a while no indigenous friends had visited, as they are still taking Covid precautions, by order of the mamas, but recently a few came to help on Tierra Negra, clearing and preparing the land for planting in exchange for cotton cloth and tools requested from the Coop. A variety of fruit trees from our on-site nursery have been planted including papayas, lemons, sour sop, mamey, avocado and cacao, also trees useful for their wood - oak, guayacan. Swathes of sugar cane ... |
2022-4 Emergency Rescue from the High Sierra.
A demonstration of the value of true friends was evidenced last week when Yeroham Vargas was in dire need of medical attention. He and his family were living in Sangueka when he sent word that he was very ill. Three times the medical helicopter tried to get to him, but due to bad weather, they could not land. So his brother Itamar called together a group of devoted friends who hiked day and night up to Sangueka (normally a 2 to 3 day hike) in record speed and took turns carrying Yeroham, who dangled in a hammock strung over a long pole, down to Palomino where an ambulance was waiting. Many thanks to those strong young men who helped! |
2022-2 Ugaeichi Being Used by Kogi Family.
The recently constructed kankurua is doing what is was made to do - host indigenous families when they need to come out of the mountains. Foundation supporters Mabel and Luis Niño stopped recently at Ugaeichi in las Cabañas de Buritcaca and sent these pictures of a Kogi family who are staying there. |
2021-11 to 2022-2 Terraces and Home Built on the High Place on Terra Negra.
Thank you all for your labor leveling off a piece of ground and terracing it to build a home up on the high spot on Tierra Negra. They have finished the roof, next, the walls. |
2021-10 Fundación Escuela Sintana and Tierra Negra and Forjando Raices Distribute Donated Food to 50 Families.
Fundación Escuela Sintana and Tierra Negra, with Forjando Raices, brought aid to 50 families in las Cabañas de Buritaca, the village at mouth of Buritaca River, which overflowed recently, flooding the town. Aimarat Vargas and her husband Mulkuabi Flores, of Forjando Raices, requested help from the government and were sent the supplies. |
2021-9 Buritaca River Rises with Powerful Storm Causing Much Damage.
A surprisingly powerful storm hit the Sierra last week with an unprecedented amount of rain. The Buritaca River rose higher than anyone can remember. Landslides barreled down the mountains. Our plantain patch was wiped out by a landslide. The Buritaca River rose up as high as the bathroom and the plastic toilet floated away! The battery of the solar panel was damaged. The kitchen was wiped clean - dishes, pots and pans, food - all went down river! The hoses that carried water to the house and fields were buried or lost. Wood that was being stored for future projects - gone! The destruction in the village by the ocean was great also. Nevertheless, work is steadily progressing on Tierra Negra, rebuilding. We are making a terrace higher up, to make another shelter. |
2021-7 Kankurua Raised at Ugaeishi.
At Ugaeichi we received a visit from an important mama from Taminaka who is a messenger from mamas of the high Sierra. The other mama is from Rio Molino and served as translator. The mama from Taminaka brought the message that they are very happy to again to have a place at the mouth of the Buritaca River where they can come down and stay for several days while they do their rituals and pagamentos and collect shells to make lime for their poporos. They carried out a ceremony by doing pagamentos on Ugaeichi and in the bordering mangroves, the madre vieja, which is between Ugaeichi and the sea. The mama identified an old stone which signifies the continuation of a long tradition of the place. With aseguransas, cotton cords placed ritualistically on wrists, we are now committed to maintain the sacredness of the area, and keep it clean. |
The mamas are very grateful and ask that other international groups who want to help, help by acquiring land for the indigenous people at the mouths of the other principal rivers of the Sierra so they can do their rituals, which sometimes take several days. They don't have any place to set up camp at other rivers.
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2021-7 Getting Ready to Build Kankurua on Ugaeichi.
Many thanks to all the volunteers who are helping us with the work on Ugaeishi. Over the last few months, fill has been delivered and spread, the wood for the frame gathered, bark stripped, and palm leaves collected. El jate found the coordinates of the solstices and equinox to know how to position to kankurua doors. |
Saja Anita Nuevita, a leader from the Rio Molino community, came by with some of her family to visit.
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2021-7 Fundación Bachaqueros Donates Trees to Protect Watershed. Jaguar Observation.
From Fundación Bachaqueros we received hundreds of trees, hardwoods and fruiting, to help reforest the Buritaca River watershed with native trees, thereby ensuring biological corridors so the regional fauna and flora remain healthy and in natural balance. Members of Fundación ProAves, a avian protection group, come to Tierra Negra periodically to count species and search for currently unclassified birds. We host Corpamag and those protecting wild felines in danger of extinction such as the tigrillo, or ocelot, and the jaguar. Motion sensitive cameras will be installed in the high part of Tierra Negra where large feline tracks have been seen, to observe passing cats and to get a better idea of their habits, in order to protect their natural range and their survival. The jaguar is sacred for the Kogi (they are the jaguar people) so this is very auspicious. They are using Tierra Negra as a pilot program to show the Kogi that this camera does no harm, so hopefully they will be permitted to go higher into the Sierra to do more observation. The mama gave Jairo the okay to do the study at Tierra Negra. |
2021-5 Corpamag and Others Help Save Turtles.
With the beginning of the turtle nesting season in Santa Marta, the Regional Autonomous Corporation of Magdalena is working on the surveillance of this species, for its protection, on the coastal edge of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. |
Corpamag, hand in hand with the National Army of Colombia, the Port Authority of Santa Marta - DIMAR, the Colombian Police, and the ProCTM Sea Turtle Conservation Program of the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University, have come together to reduce the present threats to the sea turtles such as beach fires which can incinerate entire turtle nests.
During the trip, the inter-institutional team spoke with fishermen, tour operators, hotels, commercial establishments, and tourists from the beaches of Buritaca, Quebrada Valencia, Guachaca, and Mendihuaca, so that together we can achieve the conservation of these critically endangered species in danger of extinction. @AnyVaneE |
2021-5 Path Cleared to High Spot on Tierra Negra Where Refuge is Planned.
Following trails made by forest animals, wild boar, jaguars, ocelots, a path has been forged up to the high part of Tierra Negra. The idea is to make a refuge up here. Blessing were made and permission asked to inhabit this space. Work began leveling off a spot and uncovering stones for terracing. |
2021-2 First Structure Built on Ugaeichi. Kogi Bring Homemade Panela to Barter With.
The first structure was built on Ugaeichi, a roofed rectangle store supplies and equipment. We are hooked up to the village aqueduct. Now we are collecting wood and sourcing green palm leaves for the kankurua. Eventually, we would like to make a kitchen and also a room to operate as the Coop. Kogi friends brought their homemade panela to barter with. This is sugar as organic and natural as it gets. The canes are squeezed and the sweet water is boiled until it is a solid chunk. |
2021-1 Clearing and Cleaning Ugaeichi
We have been collecting and cutting, storing wood to construct a simple rectangular building on the lot, Ugaeichi, near the mouth of the Buritaca River, a place to store tools and materials for now. Next will be a kiosk for sleeping. |
2020-Cabañas de Buritaca Named Model of Eco-Tourism. Local Environmental Protection Groups, Corpamag and Funcambiental, Plant Mangroves Along Buritaca River.
2020-9 Cabañas de Buritaca Named Model of Eco-Tourism.
2020-10 Corpamag and Funcambiental Plant Mangroves Along the Buritaca River.
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2020-9 COVID Prompts Foreigners Home and Indigenous People to High Sierra.
With the onset of the COVID pandemic, foreigners who had been at Tierra Negra returned to their respective countries and the indigenous people were called back to the high parts of the Sierra. We are waiting instructions from the mamas as to how to proceed ... |
2020-4 Raising the Nuhue on Tierra Negra.
We want to thank all the volunteers who helped raise the nuhue on Tierra Negra. This is a gathering spot, a place for quiet reflection. |
2020-3 Sugar Cane Growing, Squeezed in Rustic Juicer. Foundation Thanks Many.
The advances made by the Foundation during the last few years are thanks to the efforts of many volunteers, Colombian, indigenous, and those from abroad, and of other ecological groups. We are united in the goal of working in harmony with nature, to create a space of cooperation between the hermanos mayores and the hermanitos menores. |
2019-8,11 New Kogi Town Upriver, Medical Brigade Helps Hundreds.
About three hours walk up the Buritaca River from Tierra Negra, the Kogi are founding a new village, Malelli. Jairo Vargas, as representative of our Foundation, has taken part in all the neighborhood community group meetings and has insisted that local indigenous leaders of the village have a voice and vote in local affairs. This is imperative. In the future there will be more tribal people working with ecotourism and the visitors that hike to Teyuna, the Lost City (Ciudad Perdida). The original trail to get to this important site borders the River, and the community has worked together to reconstruct parts of this historic path. 2019-11 Medical Brigade. In this newly founded town we worked with the Fundación Forjando Raíces to hold a medical mission. |
2019-8 Itamar Vargas Leads Bioconstruction Workshop.
Fundación Escuela Sintana y Tierra Negra's volunteer, host, and guide extraordinaire, Itamar Vargas, is also a builder, highly qualified and experienced in tradition styles. He led a workshop recently, in the town of Minca, in the mountains outside of Santa Marta. |
2019-3 First Harvest of Sacha Inchi.
Sacha inchi, Plukenetia volubilis, is a plant rich in proteins and omega vitamins. Due to the recent drought conditions and uncontrolled wildfires in the Sierra, many families face food shortages. If sacha inchi grows well in the Sierra it will be a great addition to the local diet, helping to mitigate the malnutrition and hunger that plague the area due to political and environmental changes. |
2019-2 Volunteers Donate and Install Solar Panels.
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Volunteers installed solar panel donated by the Europeans. They installed lights in the bathroom and kitchen.
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2018 Volunteers from Czech Republic Return, Sacha Inchi Nursery.
2018-4 The second floor of the house is now completely enclosed. It has been a labor intensive process - cutting the cane, drying it, opening it, pounding it, weaving it. But, little by little we are advancing with the housing.
2018-second half The rains finally came. El jate and his family, with volunteers from the Czech Republic and indigenous helpers (although some were called back to their own crops) are busy planting sacha inchi, Plukenetia volubilis, a promising plant rich in proteins and omega vitamins, from the Incas. Due to the drought conditions and uncontrolled wildfires in the Sierra, many families face food shortages. If it grows well in the Sierra it will be a great addition to their diet, helping to mitigate the malnutrition and hunger that plague the area due to political and environmental changes. The Czechs and other volunteers also helped make a counter in the kitchen on Tierra Negra to raise the wood stove off the ground. Their help is enormously appreciated. |
2018-4 Foundation Buys Land at the Mouth of the Buritaca River.
After a successful GoFundMe campaign, the Foundation was able to buy a parcel of land by the beach in the village of las Cabañas de Buritaca at the mouth of the Buritaca River. Mama Pedro gave it the name Ugaeichi Portal, or, the Gate to the Garden of the Universal Mother.
Here we plan to make a kiosk so the indigenous people of the Sierra have a place to stay when they come to do rituals and gather shells for their poporos. Also, in the future, the Cooperative will be based here.
We are grateful to all those who donated to the GoFundMe initiative to help make this happen.
After a successful GoFundMe campaign, the Foundation was able to buy a parcel of land by the beach in the village of las Cabañas de Buritaca at the mouth of the Buritaca River. Mama Pedro gave it the name Ugaeichi Portal, or, the Gate to the Garden of the Universal Mother.
Here we plan to make a kiosk so the indigenous people of the Sierra have a place to stay when they come to do rituals and gather shells for their poporos. Also, in the future, the Cooperative will be based here.
We are grateful to all those who donated to the GoFundMe initiative to help make this happen.
2018-3 Foundation Receives Blessings from Mamas of the High Sierra.
Jairo Vargas, representing Fundación Escuela Sintana y Tierra Negra, participated in a meeting with mamas at a sacred lake high in the Sierra, where they made pagamentos for the blessing of our project. They are as enthusiastic as we are about spreading the word and knowledge of the mamas throughout the world! |
2018 Much Needed Cooperative Store is Operating.
The Foundation has a Cooperative Store where the indigenous people of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta can fairly exchange their products (coffee, chocolate, raw sugar, etc) for basic tools – machetes, picks, shovels, files, cotton yarn, and other supplies. For many years the Kogi have suffered the exploitation and pillaging of their possessions and traditions by homesteaders and merchants who keep them forever indebted and/or pay them with alcohol and inebriate them, thereby causing the deterioration of their society, their culture. We plan to expand the Coop project with a physical location, a roaster for coffee and chocolate, and a space to package these organic products for direct trade in local, national, and international markets. |
2017-10 Tierra Negra Reaches the Top of the Mountain! Building the House Continues.
We got the lot at the top of the mountain!!! It is 3 hectares of forest with a small creek that joins the one on Tierra Negra. This would secure the water source on Tierra Negra! |
2017-8 Descending the Buritaca River on Inner Tubes.
When it was time for us to leave, Itamar Vargas, our host, appeared with some large inner tubes. He pumped them up and tied some holes shut ... Then he led us downstream, warning us to raise our "pompis" every once in a while so we didn't hit our butts on the rocks. It was a fun ride, thankfully the current was not too strong, nor was it very deep most places, because as the trip went on, my, and someone else's, inner tubes were slowly deflating and we should be prepared to bail. In the end, we arrived safely and grateful for the wonderful opportunity to share, listen, observe, soak in the energy of the Sierra. |
2017-7 Toasting Coca Leaves With Hot Stone.
The Tayrona men toast the coca leaves they chew by putting the fresh leaves (harvested by the women) in a mochila, a loosely knotted shoulder bag made of fique, or sisal, along with a stone that's been heated up in the fire. Toss the hot rock in and shake the bag and its contents back and forth several minutes, and the leaves are ready. |
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2017-7 Homegrown Coffee. In the mornings we brewed the homegrown coffee that we had roasted and ground the night before. The smell was intoxicating! |
2017-7 Hike to High Land.
The three of us hiked up the tenuous trail to the newly acquired higher terrain. Jairo showed us the plantings of plantains, yuca, corn, and sacha inchi. We passed the original home site where eventually we want to put a trapiche, the press for sugar cane. |
2017-7 Kogi Couple Planting.
Manuel and Maria, a Kogi couple, and their year-old baby arrived after dark on a rainy evening. He came first, to see if he'd come to the right place, then left, to return later with his family. They sat together eating on a low bench with their damp backs toward the fire. At night, we all slept around the fire, under the thatched roof of the kitchen, some of us in hammocks, some lying on the floor, listening to stories, drifting in and out of sleep ... very tribal. The next day Manuel borrowed a shirt so he wouldn't get his dirty, and went to clear an area and plant it with sugar cane. An upcoming project is to build a trapiche, a wooden sugar mill, to be able to squeeze the juice from the sugar canes and make our own panela (blocks of raw sugar). Manuel's wife and child were right there beside him in the field, she also wielding a machete, at times, with the sleeping baby strapped on her back. They laughed and kidded around a lot as they worked. |
2017-7 Help Planting.
Another Kogi man showed up the next day with two young boys. They were given machetes and files and went off to weed the patch where plantains, bananas, malanga and yuca grow together. |
2017-7 Report from the Field
Foundation founding member Fernando Arango with his wife Kathryn visited Tierra Negra with Itamar Vargas. We hung strips of pork over the flame and it turned into nutritious jerky. And, thanks to a lot of previous hard work, Tierra Negra fed us with plantains, ñame, malanga, yuca, papaya, avocado, corn, beans, squash, tomatoes, culantro and other herbs, for which we are eternally grateful. |
2017 Mosty-Puente Members Build an Outhouse and Donate Mule.
Fundación Mosty-Puentes from the Czech Republic reached out to us last year, proposing a cultural exchange. Members spent time at Tierra Negra building a structure for, and installing, a composting toilet, and helped with the house construction, stone terraces, and planting. They also donated a mule which is a big help to transport materials (and people). They have pledged support for workshops such as Artes del Fogón, Cooking over Fire, weaving on a traditional Kogi loom, and mochila making. Also, they want to help build a stable for Toyota (the mule). Thank you all! Thank you! |
2017 Working with the Czech Republic Foundation Mosty-Puentes.
Our work with the Czech Republic Foundation Mosty-Puentes has produced good results and an active cultural exchange. Monica Michaelova, internationally recognized spiritual leader, has brought various groups from Europe to Tierra Negra to live alongside and study with the Kogi. They have been received by Mama Pedro and the women leaders (sajas) who have taught them the art of making the ubiquitous shoulder bags and the spiritual significance of this tradition as well as other spiritual and cultural knowledge. Mosty-Puentes invited to Europe jaba (mother) Irma Segura, member and leader in the Uaí, the fox clan, also known as hippie-Kogi, who have been accepted by the original four tribes of the Sierra. Irma and her companion ... |
2017 Building More Terraces, the Traditional Way.
Following the Tayrona tradition, which prevents erosion and directs rain runoff, many terraces again embellish the landscape, with stone walls and built-in stairs and seats. Papaya, tomatoes, herbs and hayo, grow healthily on top and mini-nurseries of hardwood and fruit tree seedlings, and medicinal plants line the rock walls. |
2016-2017 Construction on Tierra Negra.
A house is being built on a terrace, with grand stone stairways up to it. It is being crafted with fine hardwoods found in the surrounding forest. Only trees already dead on the ground are used. At times they are discovered high up the mountainside and wrestled down the steep slopes, or found floating down the Buritaca River to Tierra Negra. The house is just a wooden frame now, with a roof but no walls until the boards dry out and stabilize, yet it provides a dry place for sleeping and to store supplies and tools. Much has been done, but opportunities abound. If anyone would like to spend time on Tierra Negra, and help with any of our projects, feel free to contact us for details. Our aspiration is food self-sufficiency, and in ample quantity to sustain a Kogi family or two who could then live on Tierra Negra to share their culture and way of life, including weaving cloth on the telar indigena, a standup loom, (men's work) and mochila making (women's work), and the spiritual meanings behind these traditions. |
2016-11 Coop Functioning, Rains Return, and More Land for the Foundation.
Thanks to Bill Hamilton and the Sunrise Rotary Club for supporting Fundación Escuela Sintana y Tierra Negra again in 2017. We plan to buy two more parcels of adjacent land, the highest parts of the mountainside with views of the ocean and the snow capped peaks! More importantly, these plots contain the source of the creek that flows down through Tierra Negra. With that, we can begin an irrigation project to get water to thirsty crops and to the kitchen. And more good news coming from the Sierra - It has been raining and the vegetation is renewing itself after a long drought. We had our first harvest of corn and other food crops are planted and growing. Soon we hope to be able to sustain the indigenous families that come to collaborate at Tierra Negra. The Coop is operating, exchanging coffee, chocolate, and the traditional Kogi "mochilas" made by the women, for machetes and files, soap, cotton, and cauldrons for boiling sugar cane juice, as word has spread and indigenous families from the Guachaca region are also participating. Some Colombian volunteers have been helping at the land. We are getting connected to the Colombian coalition of Eco-Villages and people that want to come and learn from the mamas. |
2015-10 Fundación Escuela Sintana y Tierra Negra, the Black Line Initiative, and the Environmental Youth Council, Host From the Heart of the World - The Elder Brothers’ Warning and Aluna.
2015-10-14 Learning from the Kogi Indians of Colombia A thousand years before the rise of the Incan and Aztec empires, the Tayrona, people of the jaguar, lived in a highly developed civilization in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta in Colombia, South America, and the surrounding Caribbean coast. By 1000 AD an extensive network of stone paths, some up to 15 feet wide, linked the numerous flourishing cities throughout the Sierra. The Kogi are descendants of this impressive culture, having survived by fleeing to the high parts of the Sierra away from contact with the outside world, and thus conserving their ancient knowledge and view of the cosmos. In 1990, the BBC of London sent Alan Ereira to the Sierra Nevada to film a documentary about the Kogi. He had been trying to enter their territory for years. Finally, the Kogi received him and led him into the mountains where they gave him a message to take back to the Younger Brother (they being the Elder Brother). Their message was clear: We must protect the Mother who gives us life. We must respect the planet as a living entity. We must stop disrespecting and polluting our home. If we do not, the Earth will become even more unbalanced—then crops suffer, people go hungry, rivers dry up, life ends. ... |
2014-12 Tierra Negra Almost Doubles in Size. Shelter Built.
We have been blessed with another parcel of land adjacent to Tierra Negra, thanks to the Sunrise Rotary Club of Saint Augustine, Florida. It continues up the mountainside, and nearly doubles the size Tierra Negra. A thatch-roofed shelter has been put up closer to the river, a place to cook and sleep as materials are gathered and terraces made to build a sturdier building for storage and sleeping. |
2014-7 Jay Pfahl, Noted Orchidologist from Key West, Florida, Finds Wild Orchids on Tierra Negra.
In July of 2014, Fundación Escuela Sintana y Tierra Negra hosted Jay Pfahl of Key West, Florida as he surveyed the wild orchids growing in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, led by local guide, Itamar Vargas. Jay has compiled an astonishing 24,552 species of orchids in his Internet Orchid Species Photo Encyclopedia http://www.orchidspecies.com and is well known in the world of orchid lovers. In spite of the alarming drought in the region, on the Foundation’s land, Tierra Negra, he located Oncidium carthegenese, Campylocentrum micranthum, and two or three different Epidendrum that were not in flower at the time, making them impossible to affirmatively identify. |
2014-7 A Visit to Tierra Negra.
In July, Fernando Arango, co-founder of Fundación Escuela Sintana y Tierra Negra, with his wife, Kathryn, Jairo Vargas and Javier Dingula, a young Kogi boy who has lived with the Vargas family since he was 3, camped out on Tierra Negra, sleeping in hammocks in a shelter with no walls that el Jate and his sons built re-using the zinc roofing sheets left by the previous owners. There are not enough palm leaves on the property to use for roofs. We have to wait for them to grow out more. In spite of the hardest drought in recent history ... |
2013-12 Foundation Acquires More Land. Indigenous Family Living on Tierra Negra.
We are happy to announce the latest land acquisitions for the Fundación Escuela Sintana y Tierra Negra. Not only did we purchase 6 hectares above the original parcel but also a strip of land along the Buritaca River, 2 hectares which are also adjacent to the original piece. Founding member, Jairo Vargas, has been in dialog with important mamas who he's know for decades, from when he and his family lived high in the Sierra in Sangueka and they are supportive of the project and are willing to work with us, sharing their knowledge. The Dingula Chimunquero family will be helping on the land and with the Coop, and presently are living on Tierra Negra and planting food crops. |
2012-2013 Restoring Tierra Negra and Planting Food Crops.
The Foundation’s land, Tierra Negra, is a pleasant hour and a half walk along the Buritaca River, with howler monkeys in the treetops above and tropical birds and butterflies soaring overhead. One important goal of the Fundación Escuela Sintana y Tierra Negra is to reforest the once thick woods that covered the mountainsides along the Buritaca River. In the recent past, Tierra Negra had been used by coca growers. Now law enforcement has reached into the mountains and is eradicating the once lucrative crop. The most essential projects now are restoring the land and planting food on Tierra Negra so mamas and their families can live there. Yarumo trees are a pioneer trees, one of the first to take over when the forest and land have been disturbed, like Tierra Negra had been. The yarumo trees kill off the brush that has taken over after the spraying by blocking its sunlight. Other native forest trees, hardwoods and fruiting, can take over again. The mama says the yarumo brings water out of the earth and builds forest. The sweet yarumo fruit attracts monkeys, birds, squirrels, wild pigs and other forest dwellers, which in turn bring with them seeds of different species to diversify the regenerating forest. The yarumo tree has a symbiotic relationship with a certain ant (Cecropia). If you hit the tree with a machete a rain of ants will fall over you to defend it. |
2012-10 Fundación Escuela Sintana y Tierra Negra Obtains Five Hectares Beside the Buritaca River.
Thanks to donations from the Sunrise Rotary Club of St. Augustine, Florida, Fundación Escuela Sintana y Tierra Negra has obtained five hectares beside the Buritaca River, downstream from Teyuna (Cuidad Perdida or the Lost City). Uncovered in the 1970’s by tomb robbers looking for gold, by some estimations at one time it housed up to 8000 people. It is thought that this site was occupied as early as 650 AD. That would make it about 800 years older than Machu Picchu. The Buritaca River is sacred for the native people of the Sierra. In the watershed of this important river, which flows from the core of the Sierra down to the blue Caribbean, Fundación Escuela Sintana y Tierra Negra is creating a space to preserve memory of traditions and belief, and to be able to work with Mother Earth on both spiritual and physical levels. |
2012 Fundación Escuela Sintana y Tierra Negra is Formed.
When St. Augustine resident Bill Hamilton saw the BBC movie, From the Heart of the World - The Elder Brothers’ Warning, he was impressed by its message, and felt a calling to help. Then he met Fernando and Kathryn Arango, who had moved to St. Augustine, FL, after living for several years within the Kogi community. Fernando’s first visit to the Sierra Nevada mountains of northern Colombia as a teenager in the 1960’s changed his life. To know there were still dignified people living a simple life with integrity, in harmony with the natural world, was an inspiration. Kathryn and Fernando agreed with Bill that something should be done to help them maintain their culture. Together with Jairo Vargas, who has lived in the Sierra Nevada for over forty years, they formed the Fundación Escuela Sintana y Tierra Negra.
Because of the Heart of the World movie, many people have now heard of the Kogi and want to meet them. This however ...
When St. Augustine resident Bill Hamilton saw the BBC movie, From the Heart of the World - The Elder Brothers’ Warning, he was impressed by its message, and felt a calling to help. Then he met Fernando and Kathryn Arango, who had moved to St. Augustine, FL, after living for several years within the Kogi community. Fernando’s first visit to the Sierra Nevada mountains of northern Colombia as a teenager in the 1960’s changed his life. To know there were still dignified people living a simple life with integrity, in harmony with the natural world, was an inspiration. Kathryn and Fernando agreed with Bill that something should be done to help them maintain their culture. Together with Jairo Vargas, who has lived in the Sierra Nevada for over forty years, they formed the Fundación Escuela Sintana y Tierra Negra.
Because of the Heart of the World movie, many people have now heard of the Kogi and want to meet them. This however ...