The Pech people, previously known as the Paya, are an Indigenous ethnic group in north-eastern Honduras. According to a 2007 census conducted by Indigenous organisations, 6,024 people self-identified as being of Pech descent. Although, in recent developments, the language is mainly spoken by older generations and is in danger of being extinct in the relative near future. The regions where the Pech people live were originally densely forested, however, has recently undergone deforestation.
Before the colonial period in the sixteenth century, the Pech people migrated from the south to inhabit a large territory close to the border of Nicaragua. Following, in 1713, the son of Bartolomé de Escoto, a Spanish coloniser, was titled as the "governor and conqueror of the Paya" and was earning a salary of "one hundred pesos." After contact and spread of Spanish presence, the Pech people were forced to retreat and live under control of the Spanish colonists, like many other Indigenous groups. Upon arrival, the Spanish colonists recognised the Pech people as 'Xicaque' which remains to still be in use today.
Culture
According to historians, Martynas Snarskis and Mary W. Helms, pre-European settlement, the Pech people did not possess "key cultural attributes as highly stratified societies, political organisation at the state level, intensive agricultural cultivation techniques, metallurgy, or large urban centres."
Agriculture/economy
The Pech people have always made a living by fishing and shifting agriculture. This is due to the lack of plant-supplied protein and nutrients in the diets of root croppers. The Pech people acquired the balance of their diet from the practice of hunting and fishing. In order to hunt, the Pech people utilise the 'cerbatana' (a type of blowgun), bow and arrow, and traps. Today the main economic activities conducted by the Pech people include tree clearing, gold panning, breeding domestic animals and extracting fragrant resin from liquidambar for perfumes, incense and adhesives. This collection of ceramic pieces were later uncovered to be the craftsmanship of Honduran Indigenous peoples, the Pech. This is because "taia" represents a Pech place name for the lands they previously occupied in contrast to the lands that were occupied by other, non-Pech people, which is referred to as "maia". The earliest Pech presence can also be found in the writing of Martyr. Usually, rivers act as the indicator for the borders of Pech territory, such as the Aguán River, which borders with the Jicaque people, and the Cuyamel River, territory of Cabo de Gracias a Dios. Growing land displacements, dispositions and a lack of territorial formalisation is a prominent daily challenge of Indigenous peoples in Honduras. For the Pech people, this challenge stems from a history of conflict with neighbouring Indigenous group, the Miskito People. The aggressive raids of the Miskito were in large manner responsible for the gradual withdrawal of the Pech into the mountainous regions and away from the coast. Beginning from the middle of the 17th century, it has been documented that the Miskito dominated the coastal Pech people and were forced to take rescue along the Patuca, Sicre, Platano, Twas, Paulaya and Sico rivers as well as in the Olancho valley. These groups were the only Indigenous groups named by the census, allowing the Pech people to be recognised both by legal and non-legal bodies.
The Federation of Pech Tribes of Honduras unites 12 Pech tribes and aims to protect their ancestral lands.
thumb|International Labour Organization (ILO) Flag
The Pech people are among the Indigenous groups recognised under the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention of 1989 (No. 169), which was ratified by the Honduran government in 1995. In the 19th century, Spanish missionary, Father Manuel del Jesus Subirana, recognised the significant relationship between the Pech and the land and helped the Pech people acquire title to land ownership in 1862.