Panama - Native Peoples

Last modified: 2001-08-10 by dov gutterman
Keywords: panama | swastika | cuna | tule |
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• Cuna Indians
  • Overview
  • Current Flag
  • Reported and Historical Flags

See also:

• Panama

Cuna Indians

Overview

Around the end of the 19th Century or beginning of the 20th Century the Cuna Indians (in Panama) revolted and set up the Republic of Tule or the Republic of the Men (Tule in their language means "Men" and is the name they use for themselves). The swastica is an ancient symbol of the culture of the Cuna (Tule) people.
Jaume Ollé, 29 July 1996

Current Flag

by Dave Martucci and Antonio Martins, 4 April 2000

There are now also three indigenous districts, including the "Comarca de San Blas", a.k.a. "Kuna Yala" inhabited by the cunas Indians
According a representativa of the Cuna natives in Spain, the old flag of Cunas is currently in use; the swastika has not any circular adorn, and the red colour is in fact dark organge  (information provided by vexillologist -and latin american native peoples expert , Juanjo Gonzalez)
Jaume Olle', 1 January 2000

This currently used flag is then:
- without ring
- dark orange instead of red
- with yellow central stripe
- ratio: 2:3
- with central stripe higher than the others (1:4:1)
Antonio Martins and Jaume Olle', 19 March 2000

Two precisions:
the flag is now manufactured at 2:3 but as far as I know many first peoples in Latin America prefer square (or close square) pattern. I doubt that "official" regulation exist.
The central stripe is wider than the upper and lower ones, but Juanjo (that didn't saw any original flag) is not sure if was 1:2:1, 1:3:1 or 1:4:1.
Jaume Olle', 12 April 2000

Reported and Historical Flags

by Dave Martucci and Antonio Martins, 4 April 2000

by Dave Martucci and Antonio Martins, 4 April 2000

The first of these flags is from a Flag Bulletin [tfb] article which indicated it was dimensions 4:5 with stripes (1:3:1) of red-yellow-red and a black "reversed" swastika displayed on one arm (not on a point as in the Nazi flag).
The second flag is from the "Flags of Aspirant Peoples" chart, and is basically the same except a 2:3 ratio and with the addition of a red ring hanging on the junction of the swastika.
I had occasion to ask Whitney Smith about the second flag and he said it was modified in 1942 because of Nazi associations with the swastika by the addition of a "nose ring." The change was made by the Cunas "because everyone knows Germans do not wear nose rings."
Dave Martucci, 12 November 1996

The second flag is listed under number 197 at the chart "Flags of Aspirant Peoples" [asp] as :
"Tule Republic (Cuna Indians, 1925) - San Blas Islands, Panama."
Ivan Sache, 16 September 1999

by Kjell Roll Elgsaas, 15 December 1997

In your page about Panama you include the flag of the cuna indians and say that it was the flag they used when they proclaimed independence from Panama "around the end of the 19th Century or beginning of the 20th Century the Cuna Indians", as a panamanian I know a more accurate date... it was on february 1925
Jose Ramos , 28 August 1999

I do remember that I  saw once a picture of the Cuna flag in a book (IIRC, It was called: "Wonders of the world in German) dating back to the 1920's. It was in B/W and next to the swatiska, on the left was a indian head and on the right the word CUNA...
Pascal Prince, 5 April 2000