Chiquitano

Chiquitano

Drawing of typical Chiquitano dress, by Alcide d'Orbigny, 1831
Total population
108,943
Regions with significant populations
Bolivia	108,206 (2001) Santa Cruz: 105,515 (2005) Cochabamba: 1,816 La Paz: 1,533; Beni: 1,497 other: 1,533
Brazil	737 (2006)
Languages
Chiquitano, Spanish, Portuguese
Religion
Traditional tribal religion, Christianity

The Chiquitano are an indigenous people of Bolivia, with a small number also living in Brazil. The Chiquitano primarily live in the Chiquitania tropical savanna of Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia, with a small number also living in Beni Department and in Mato Grosso, Brazil. In the 2001 census, self-identified Chiquitanos made up 3.6% of the total Bolivian population or 181,894 people, the largest number of any lowland ethnic group. A relatively small proportion of Bolivian Chiquitanos speak the Chiquitano language. Many reported to the census that they neither speak the language nor learned it as children. The Chiquitano ethnicity emerged among socially and linguistically diverse populations required to speak a common language by the Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos.

The name Chiquitos means "little ones" in Spanish. It was chosen by the Spanish Conquistadores, when they found the small doors of the Indian huts in the region. The Chiquitanos are also known as the Chiquito or Tarapecosi people.

Approximately 40,000 to 60,000 of Chiquitanos speak the Chiquitano language in Bolivia, making it the fourth most commonly spoken indigenous language in that country. The language is a Chiquito language, belonging to the Macro-Ge language family. Men's and women's speech differ from each other grammatically. The language is written in the Latin script. Several grammars for Chiquitano have been published, and four dialects have been identified: Manasi, Peñoqui, Piñoco, and Tao.

A variety of indigenous ethnic groups inhabited the Chiquitanía prior to Spanish arrival, which was marked by the 1559 founding of Santa Cruz de la Sierra at a point far to the east of the city's present location. Missionary contact was unsuccessful by during the first nine decades of the 1600s.