Muisca

Hello! We are the Muisca people. Our home is high, high up in the cool mountains. The air is fresh in the land now called Colombia. The mountains have always been our home, and we know how to live here. We are great farmers. To grow our food, we build special gardens on the sides of the steep mountains. They look like big, wide steps going up, up, up! These are called terraces. On our terraces, we carefully plant yummy food for all our families to eat. We grow tasty corn and hearty potatoes to fill our bellies.

Our hands are very talented, and we love to create. We are artists. We make beautiful things from shiny, yellow gold that looks like the sun. We carefully shape the gold into little figures that sparkle and gleam. For us, gold is not like money that you use to buy things. It is a special, sacred gift from the earth. We also build our homes together. Our houses are cozy and round, a lovely shape for a home. We use strong wood and soft clay for the walls, and we cover the top with a straw roof to keep us warm and dry. Our families live together inside. Being with our family is the most important thing to us.

Guess what? We are still here today! Our Muisca communities are alive and well. We work hard every day to take care of our beautiful mountain homes and protect our lands for the future. It is very important for us to teach our children all about who we are. We share our own language with them so they can speak our words. We show them our special traditions and tell them all of our important stories. This is how we make sure our Muisca culture stays alive and strong for our children, and their children, too.