Araona people

[1] The Araonans live in the headwaters of the Manupari river in northwest Bolivia.

[2] The first written historical mention of the Araona people comes from the Franciscan missionaries Manuel Mancini and Fidel Codenach in January 1867.

[3] They were however unable to found any place for their mission in this area of the La Paz department.

At the end of the 19th century the Araona were one of many indigenous groups who were displaced from their villages and used as slaves for the rubber industry.

In 1965, Protestant Evangelical activists and missionaries from the SIL International created a permanent settlement and cooperated with the Araona communities to establish links with other indigenous groups.