Lakandon Ch'ol

The Lakandon Ch'ol were a former Ch’ol-speaking Maya people inhabiting the Lacandon Jungle in what is now lowland Chiapas in Mexico and the bordering regions of northwestern Guatemala, along the tributaries of the upper Usumacinta River and the foothills of the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes.

The Lakandon Ch'ol of the time of the Spanish conquest should not be confused with the modern Yucatec-speaking Lacandon people occupying the same region. At the time of Spanish contact in the 16th century, the Lacandon Jungle was inhabited by Ch'ol people referred to as Lakam Tun. This name was hispanicised, first to El Acantun, then to Lacantun and finally to Lacandon. The main Lakandon village was situated on an island in Lake Miramar, also referred to as Lakam Tun by the inhabitants. The Lakandons, together with their equally unconquered Itza enemies to the northeast, had an especially warlike reputation among the Spanish.

Hernán Cortés first heard of the existence of the Lakandon when he was passing through Kejache territory in 1524, although he did not actually contact them. During the 16th century, the Spanish colonial authorities in Verapaz, within the Captaincy General of Guatemala, complained that baptised Maya were fleeing colonial towns in order to find refuge among the independent Lakandon and their Manche Ch'ol neighbours. The first Spanish expedition against the Lakandons was carried out in 1559, commanded by Pedro Ramírez de Quiñones.

At the end of the 16th century, under pressure from the advancing Spanish frontier, the Lakandon Ch'ol abandoned Lakam Tun and withdrew deeper into the forest to the southeast where they founded a new town, Sakb'ajlan, within a wide curve of the Lacantún River. The name of the town translated as "white jaguar". The Lakandons had two other settlements further east, called Map and Peta.

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