page_title: La Guajira Department
section_title: Pre-Columbian
hierarchical_section_title: La Guajira Department / History / Pre-Columbian
context_page_description: La Guajira is a department of Colombia. It occupies most of the Guajira Peninsula in the northeast region of the country, on the Caribbean Sea and bordering Venezuela, at the northernmost tip of South America. The capital city of the department is Riohacha.
  Various indigenous tribes populated the arid plains of the region long before the Spanish expeditions reached the Americas. In 1498, Alonso de Ojeda sailed around the peninsula of La Guajira, but the first European to set foot in what is known today as La Guajira was the Spanish explorer Juan de la Cosa in 1499. During the colonial era, the territory of La Guajira was disputed by the governors of Santa Marta and Venezuela, owing to deposits of pearls. English pirates, Frenchmen, and Germans also fought for control of the territory.
  Martin Fernandez de Enciso founded Nuestra Señora Santa María de los Remedios del Cabo de la Vela, the first colonial village in the territory. In 1535, Nicolás de Federmán refounded the settlement as the village of Riohacha, as a result of constant attacks by the Wayuu people. In 1544, it was moved to the site of the present-day city.
context_section_description: During the pre-Columbian era, present-day La Guajira was inhabited predominantly by indigenous tribes belonging, in the dry northern lowlands, mostly to the Wayuu (Guajiros, Macuiros, Anates, Caquetios, Wayunaiki, Cuanaos, Onotos and Eneales) and Cocina people, and, in the south, to the Kogui, Arhuaco, Guanebucan, and Chimila ethnic groups, among others. Archaeological digs have uncovered the sites of fishing communities that used pottery on the central eastern side of the Guajira Peninsula, dating to the 10th century BC.
  These groups coexisted on the Guajira Peninsula. The northern indigenous peoples were nomads traveling the peninsula, hunting, fishing, and collecting fruit. The indigenous groups in the south were semi-sedentary, practicing agriculture and exploiting coastal resources.
caption: The Cabo de la Vela was one of the first sites that Spanish explorers first sighted upon their arrival to the continental Americas.
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