Etymology.
Tulumayos, comes from two Quechua words, which in many parts of the country have different meanings:
TULU OR TULLU = Bone; and MAY = River,
What does it mean, river of bones, because when the settlers arrived in 1920, they found many human bones on the banks of the Tulumayo River.
There are some who identify as Tulumayos the descendants of the Tulu warrior who died fighting a Puma that killed his family, and who both fell into the river that today bears his name (Tulu River).
Historical review of the Tulumayos.
The Tulumayos were a very ancient tribe whose origins are not very well known, they dominated the entire valley of the Tulumayo River, reaching the Huallaga, being limited to the north by the Pendencia River.
They were of a sedentary gender, they practiced hunting, gathering, fishing and agriculture, their population was small, compared to other ethnic groups, they were governed by the Cacique, a wise man and not very old, but courage distinguished from the others. According to chronicles, they are described as peaceful, festive, peaceful and easily convinced people, they were the first to receive the gospel, that is why it is believed that they were exterminated by their neighbors, because they believed that they had allied with the enemy.
Being surrounded by exuberant nature, they did not suffer from food, which is why the origin of their pacifist spirit is believed. Their clothing was made of wild leaves and stems, they did not know textiles, they made stone axes and knives, as well as bows made of chonta and arrows made of animal bones; They also made spears for fishing purposes, made of mama jonda (an almost heavy stick with an internal hole) and curved bone tips. For their parties, they made plumes with feathers from wild birds (except parrots) and animal skins, adorning them with seeds and possibly the skulls of hunted animals, as a sign of their skill. Its crafts constituted fundamentally by roots and stems; they learned about ceramics, with which they made beautiful jars, plates and containers.
For fishing they used the raft as a means of transportation, which was made of balsa sticks (Topa), and they used wild cane sticks as tangana that served to drive navigation, they used the reed to make nets that allowed them to corner the fish in the pools.
Young women were cared for by the mother until delivery in marriage. In order for the male to be able to marry, he had to be submissive to his future family, feeding it for a year, then it was just given to his partner, so that they could live as husband and wife.
In their parties, they painted their faces with lines that surely meant the shape of territory, or their offspring. To mitigate the cold they created large bonfires that they lit to mitigate the cold, it is also believed that they worshiped fire because it provided them with security; religiously, they worshiped the sun, the moon, and the rainbow. For the realization of the bonfires, they mostly went to the beaches during the day, collected large sticks that they obtained from the palisades, and wove them one after another like a kind of pyramid, with which they built immense bonfires, finished the preparation, they returned in the nights carrying torches with fire, and they were lit to give manifestations of rites to the moon, stars, and fire. According to the chronicles, these campfires were seen from far away. In these parties they also narrated their expeditions or adventures,
The man performed the tasks of strength, while the woman maintained the house and took care of the children. They maintained close communication with some tribes such as the Huantahuanas and the Tepquis, but with the others there was a notable distance, due to the way of living. They were considered the most timid in the area, but that did not exclude their fierceness when it came to defending their territory. In the writings left, a kind of legend is narrated, which speaks of the Tulu cacique who faced a ferocious puma and how the river takes its name.
According to the traditions, Tulu was a bone-hard cacique, invincible, brave and audacious, that when he was with his people in MITAYA, the puma killed his children and his wife. The cacique swore revenge, and readied his bow and arrows with sachavaca bone tips, to pierce the toughest skin there could be. Finding themselves face to face with the cougar, they engaged in a fierce fight and both rushed into the turbulent waters of the river.
For this reason, the hill where the puma lived was called Pumahuasi (House of the Puma), and the town that is near the hill adopted the same name. Then in 1920, when new settlers entered this part of the jungle, they found a large number of bones on the riverbank, which is why it is currently called the River of Bones.
They were exterminated by the Caillisecas or Shipibos, coming from the Ucayali in 1704, also assassinating Father Jerónimo de los Ríos; then by the 1920s it was populated by the Tingalese settlers.
The extinction of the Tulumayos was total, not only due to the genocide of the Shipibos, but also due to the diseases brought by the Spanish, such as smallpox, mumps, and measles.
Symbology.
They painted their faces in a single characteristic color that was white, whose lines had their own meaning in each person, it could represent their offspring or their territory, in many cases they manifested the work they did.
