The K'iche' (or Quiché in Spanish spelling), are a Native American people, one of the Maya ethnic groups. Their indigenous language, the K'iche' language, is a Mesoamerican language of the Mayan language family. The highland K'iche' states in the pre-Columbian era are associated with the ancient Maya civilization. A Hupa man. ... This article is about the people of the former Maya civilization after the conquest by Spain. ... Indigenous languages of the Americas (or Amerindian Languages) are spoken by indigenous peoples from the southern tip of South America to Alaska and Greenland, encompassing the land masses which constitute the Americas. ... The Kiche language (Quiché in Spanish) is a part of the Mayan language family. ... Genealogy Areal Uto-Aztecan —5000 BP* Soshonean (N Uto-Aztecan) —3500 BP Numic (Plateau group) —2000 BP C Plateau Soshoni [SHH] Comanche [COM] Paramint [PAR] S Plateau Ute-Chemehuevi (S Paiute) [UTE] Kawaiisu [KAW] W Plateau Mono [MON] Paiute (Northern Paiute) [PAO] Takic ( Southern Californian) —2400... Page 9 of the Dresden Codex showing the classic Maya language written in Mayan hieroglyphs(from the 1880 Förstermann edition) Mayan languages (alternatively: Maya languages[1]) constitute a language family spoken in Mesoamerica and northern Central America. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... 74. ...

El Quiché is also the name of a department of modern Guatemala. El Quiché El Quiché is a department of the central American country Guatemala. ...

Rigoberta Menchú, an activist for indigenous rights who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, is perhaps the best-known K'iche'. Rigoberta Menchú Rigoberta Menchú Tum (born in Chimel, January 9, 1959) is an indigenous Guatemalan, of the Quiché-Maya ethnic group. ... Lester B. Pearson after accepting the Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Norwegian: Nobels fredspris) is the name of one of five Nobel Prizes bequested by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. ...

People

The K'iche' people live mostly in the highlands of Guatemala. Most of them speak the K'iche' language, although most also have at least a working knowledge of Spanish, except in some isolated rural villages. The Kiche language (Quiché in Spanish) is a part of the Mayan language family. ...

The Guatemalan department of El Quiché is named after the K'iche' people. The department is the heartland of the people, but in former times they were spread over a wider area of the Guatemala highlands. El Quiché El Quiché is a department of the central American country Guatemala. ...

History

In pre-Columbian times, the K'iche' were one of the most powerful states in the region. They bordered the Kaqchikel. The Kaqchikel (in modern orthography; formerly also spelled Cakchiquel) are one of the indigenous Maya peoples of the midwestern highlands in Guatemala. ...

The K'iche' were conquered by the conquistador Pedro de Alvarado in 1524. Their last king, Tecún Umán, who was killed by Alvarado, remains a folk-hero and figure of legend. Umán died fighting Alvarado's army at the valley of Quetzaltenango, where as many as 10,000 K'iche' lost their lives. After the battle, the Quiché surrendered and invited Alvarado to their capital, Gumarcaj, however Alvarado suspected an ambush and had the city burned. The ruins of the city can still be seen, just a short distance from Santa Cruz del Quiché. Conquistador (Spanish: []) (meaning Conqueror in the Spanish language) is the term used to refer to the soldiers, explorers and adventurers who brought much of the Americas and Asia Pacific under Spanish colonial rule between the 15th and 17th centuries, starting with the 1492 settlement established in the modern-day Bahamas... Pedro de Alvarado y Contreras (Badajoz, c. ... Events March 1, 1524/5 - Giovanni da Verrazano lands near Cape Fear (approx. ... Statue of Tecún Umán in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. ... Buildings flanking the Central Park Square in Quetzaltenango Building flanking the Central Park Square in Quetzaltenango Quetzaltenango is the second most populous city of Guatemala, after Guatemala City, and is the capital of Quetzaltenango Department. ... Gumarcaj, sometimes rendered as Cumarcaj or Kumarcaaj, is an archeological site in El Quiché department of Guatemala. ... Santa Cruz de Quiché is a town in Guatemala, in the province of El Quiché, of which it is the departmental capital. ...

One of the most significant surviving Mesoamerican literary documents and primary sources of knowledge about Maya societal traditions, beliefs and mythological accounts is a product of the 16th century K'iche' people. This document, known as the Popol Wuj (in modern K'iche' orthography; also known as the Popol Vuh) and originally written around the 1550s, contains a compilation of mythological and ethno-historical narratives known to these people at that time, which were drawn from earlier pre-Columbian sources (now lost) and also oral traditional storytelling. This narrative includes a telling of their version of the creation myth, relating how world and humans were created by the gods, the story of the divine brothers, and the history of the K'iche' from their migration into their homeland up to the Spanish conquest. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Popol Vuh (Council Book or Book of the Community; Popol Wuj in modern Quiché spelling) is the book of scripture of the Quiché, a Kingdom of the Maya civilization in Guatemala. ... The Spanish Conquest of Yucatán was the campaign undertaken by the Spanish conquistadores against the Late Postclassic Maya states and polities, particularly in the northern and central Yucatán Peninsula but also involving the Maya polities of the Guatemalan highlands region. ...