page_title: Gaitana
section_title: Pre-Columbian era
hierarchical_section_title: Gaitana / Pre-Columbian era
caption_attribution_description: Español: Pueblos Originarios del Alto Magadalena durante la Invasión.
context_page_description: Gaitana, also known as Guaitipan, is referred to as La Gaitana and Cacica Gaitana, was a 16th-century Yalcon woman from the region of Timaná, Huila, a leader who, in 1539–40, led the indigenous people of the Upper Magdalena River Valley in Colombia in armed resistance against the colonization by the Spanish. Her monument sculpted by Rodrigo Arenas stands in Neiva, the capital of the Huila Department in Colombia.
context_section_description: According to Spanish chronologists, at the time of conquest, the modern territory of Huila Department was inhabited by many different indigenous peoples. The Yalcón (with nearly 6,000 warriors), the Avirama, the Pinao, the Guanaca, and the Paez lived north of the Magdalena River, with later concentrations around the La Plata River. South of the Magdalena River lived the Andaquí and Timaná and to the east lived the Pijao.
caption: Map of indigenous peoples in the south of Huila
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