| To date, indigenous people of Panama number about | | | | The Bokota live mainly in eastern Bocas Del Toro and |
| five percent of the country's population and are | | | | share a linguistic commonality with the Guayami. The |
| located in the most remote parts of the isthmus. | | | | Bokota live in a region so remote, that up until the |
| There are seven recognized tribes of indigenous | | | | mid-eighties hardly a road existed. |
| people in Panama. They are the | | | | The Terribe is another small tribe. Their population |
| Nôbe-Buglé, Teribe, Kuna, | | | | was devastated by epidemics when tuberculosis |
| Embera-Wounaan, Guaymi, Talamanca, and the | | | | attacked villages between 1910 and 1930. But after |
| Bokata. They range from almost completely | | | | the 1950s their population began to surge. A Seventh |
| assimilated to groups holding on to their traditions | | | | Day Adventist mission was active with the tribe for |
| with dear life and white knuckles as the sands of | | | | many years, trying to get them to dump their religion. |
| time move them into a more West bound direction. | | | | To this point they have adopted the dominant |
| The Guyami and Nôbe-Buglé comprise | | | | mestizo culture and their knowledge of the natural |
| roughly one half of the indigenous population of the | | | | history of the are is waning. Things got so bad in the |
| country and reside mainly in Chiriqui Province. These | | | | 1980´s that some began raiding the ancestral |
| two tribes speak Spanish but have strived to | | | | burial grounds for gold to sell. |
| preserve their traditional way of life. The Teribe are | | | | The literacy rate is far lower for natives than it is for |
| fiercely proud of their language and will not even use | | | | any other ethnic group in Panama. Twenty years |
| Spanish words for non-native objects. The Kuna live | | | | ago, the illiteracy rate was at over 80 percent |
| on the Caribbean side on a comarca called San Blas. | | | | compared to almost 20 percent of the population at |
| They also reside in Western Panama and in the | | | | large. But there has been much improvement. Before |
| mountains of the Darien. | | | | the government got involved, their education was |
| The Embera occupied the south-eastern portion of | | | | conducted through missionaries. There are hundreds |
| the Darien. Most were bilingual in Embera and Spanish | | | | of Indian schools now and their education is improving |
| and many have intermarried with Colombian blacks. | | | | rapidly. Their future, it appears, is now in their hands. |