The Kuna Indians in the Past Century (Part History of San Blass and other Island)

The Kuna have had a long and varied history of contact with Europeans, beginning in the early 1500s with the arrival of the Spanish. Research would seem to indicate that they lived along inland waterways and had a mixed subsistence society based on farming, hunting, fishing, and collecting. The aboriginal social structure is thought to have been one of highly stratified villages, each with its own chief, nobles, commoners, and slaves. Warfare was probably common, especially against the neighboring Choco and Catio people.

Many Kuna Indians were killed in warfare or by European diseases; the Spanish used harsh measures to extract tribute and labor from the indigenous populations.

Often the Kuna allied themselves with the British against the Spanish. This pattern of hostility toward Spanish-speakers, contrasted with amicable relations with English-speakers, has continued in modern times. After independence from Spain, the Kuna eventually aligned themselves with Panama rather than Colombia. In 1925 they staged a rebellion, which resulted in the San Blas area becoming the largest autonomous Kuna Reserve within the Republic of Panama, a political status it still holds today.

The Kuna, in the twenty-first century, are undergoing a population increase. Although remaining somewhat outside the mainstream of Panamanian society, they are increasingly influenced by Western culture.