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Panama - Native Peoples

Cuna Indians

Cuna Indians

by Dave Martucci

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

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

This variant design was submitted 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

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