Note on Chamikuro and Aguano Surnames

I am writing this post from Yurimaguas, Peru, where I am working with an elderly speaker of Chamikuro, Alfonso Patow Chota, and doing research in the cathedral and vicarial archives as well. Alfonso was born in 1925 at his father's estate of Pampa Hermosa down the Huallaga River from here. North and northwest of here, in the "V" formed by the confluence of the Marañón and Huallaga rivers, Shawi and Shiwilu, the two surviving languages of the Kawapanan family, are spoken. Across the Huallaga to the northeast, in a similar V formed by the Marañón and Ucayali, Chamikuro, an Arawakan language, was spoken. Closer to the Huallaga, on the right bank of the lower course of the river, the closely related Aguano language was spoken. (Unrelated Kukamiria was also spoken throughout the lower Huallaga.) At the beginning of the 20th century, Chamikuro people lived primarily in one barrio of Lagunas, downriver of Pampa Hermosa, and at the former Jesuit mission site, San Xavier de los Chamicuros (later simply "Chamicuros"), inland along a road that reached from Lagunas to the headwaters of the Samiria, now well known as a national park. (The Jesuits were expelled in 1767, but the presence of the Church in this community continued.)

Marañón, Huallaga, and Ucayali rivers in Peru

In the mid-19th century, Chamicuros was still a well populated place. A roster of students dated February 28, 1864 sent by schoolteacher Eduardo Lozano to government officials in Moyobamba lists 52 male children 15 years or younger who attended daily; a second one, dated March 6, lists another 19 male students older than 15. If we assume the female population was of similar size, then there were approximately 140 children and unmarried young people in the community at this time. The surnames of these students were (standardizing spelling): Apuela (1), Bermejo (1), Causanari (1), Chilicahua (2), Chimeta (7), Chota (14), Josechuma (3), Juan de Dios (2), Lozano (1), Macanapiti (3), Macanasepa (4), Mosehuasepa (2), Micanapita (2), Munacaro (6), Orbe (4), Patipalasepa (1), Rupacutiri (3), Sangama (2), Sialo (2), Sincome (7), Tate (1), and Yumbato (2). A few things should stand out: the base macana (and perhaps variant micana), and a suffix -sepa, in particular.

Partial roster of school at Chamicuros (1864)
(Archives of the Vicariato Apostólico de Yurimaguas)

In late 1653, a military captain from Borja (Marañón), Juan Martínez, entered the lower Huallaga with 320 "friendly" indigenous people, four soldiers, and Fr. Raimundo de Santa Cruz. They took 13 Aguanos captive, and noticed that one of the Cutinanas in their retinue could speak with them. There were subsequent campaigns in January and October 1654; in the former, accompanying Maparinas were also able to communicate with the Aguanos (these details from Fr. Francisco de Figueroa, writing in 1661; 1986:219-225). Whether Cutinanas and Maparinas spoke an Arawakan language is confusing, because Figueroa explains how the Shiwilus had previously brought several hundred Cutinanas to live in Jeberos from the mouth of the Samiria, "dándose por parientes." Separately, Figueroa (1986:253) says that Aguano, Cutinana, and Maparina languages were "algo comunes"; but he also gives the same description to Kukamiria and Itucale, which must have been a dialect of Urarina (isolate), known today not to be related to Kukamiria (Tupian). However, evidence from names makes it more convincing that Aguano was Arawakan.

In the January 1654 campaign, the Jesuits brought back to Jeberos a young woman they believed to be Aguano, only to discover that the Aguanos considered her Chamikuro, who the Aguanos were in conflict with. In 1655, scribe Juan de Céspedes Prieto wrote a testimonio about this period, in which he states that one Aguano cacique was named Callusepa (this in a volume of manuscript material edited by Fernando Santos Granero and published as "La conquista de los motilones, tabalosos, maynas y jíbaros" in 2003). (Pardon the unorthodox citations; I don't have these volumes at my fingertips, some of this coming from notes.) Figueroa also states that two Aguano caciques were Seculuçepa and Chilicagua, and that two other parcialidades were the Meliquines (cf. Céspedes's Miliquinas) and Tibilos. (Chilicagua and three companions were killed by the cacique and a principalejo of the Miliquinas, for which they were hanged by the Spanish.)

Of linguistic importance is, of course, -sepa and Chilicagua. To take the latter first, the surname Chilicahua encountered in Chamicuros in 1864 is simply inherited from the proper name of an Aguano chief of the 17th century. In Yurimaguas baptismal records of the 19th century, a variant Chilicasepa is also found, suggesting that -wa was another relevant suffix in names. Indeed in 1875, a Chilicahua married a Chilicasepa, both originally of Santa Cruz, a community on the Huallaga upriver of Pampa Hermosa originally named Santa Cruz de los Aguanos (n.b., by 1926 the language, not documented whatsoever, was no longer spoken there; Tessmann 1930).

Marriage of José de Jesús Chilicahua to Isidora Chilicasepa (1875)
(Archives of the Catedral de la Virgen de las Nieves, Yurimaguas)

Regarding the suffix -sepa, Céspedes is again instructive. He reports that Callusepa gave the names of other caciques of the 1650s, together with place names (p. 201; places underlined, personal names in boldface):

el dicho general les pregunto, por quantos pueblos avia en aquella provincia, dixeron que nueve llamados Patillacan -- Y el Cacique diez Otopello -- Y otro pueblo que se estava dos dias de camino de alli, se llamava Mayana y que el Cacique se llamava Caulla matillo-otros dos dias de camino llamado Guaypa y al Cacique se llamava Luco Cecille-otro dia de camino llamado Sotopelo y el Cacique Cuilasepa-otro otros tres dias de camino nombrado Maulo Cepalo y el Cacique Charremarquelo y un dia de camino otro nombrado Isiechepalo y al Cacique Joachimitile.

Chamikuro texts published by Parker (1987) give a stream in the Samiria headwaters with the name simply of Sepalo. In Céspedes's list, -sepalo seems to occur more than once (i.e., Maulo Cepalo and Isiechepalo); and note the additional cacique with the name Cuilasepa. In short, the ending -sepa that Figueroa gives for Aguano cacique Seculuçepa and that Céspedes gives for Aguano cacique Callusepa connects them to what must have been Chamikuro chiefs with similar names ending in the same suffix: the surnames Macanasepa, Mosehuasepa, and Patipalasepa of Chamicuros of the 1860s. The roots underlying these names do not seem to have any other meaning in Chamikuro (Patow Chota, p.c.).

Names for individuals ending in -sepa? Names for streams ending in sepalo? The latter is clearly Chamikuro (Parker 1987). Perhaps it's etymologically related to the Chamikuro word jeepa 'stream.' Perhaps both chiefs and places took names from common roots, with personal names ending in -sepa. Regardless, the picture that is painted is one of a network of related Aguano and Chamikuro (and other Arawakan) chiefs inland from the right bank of the lower Huallaga in the 1650s. As a next step, it would be valuable to consult the original manuscripts related to Céspedes's account, to see if clearer spellings can be identified with knowledge of Chamikuro. The originals sent to Madrid are now in Seville, at the renowned Archivo de Indias; copies were made for the Archivo de Límites in Lima, which were published first in 1900. I'll be in Spain next month!