the mortality in the group was drastically reduced. They are forever grateful to this plant for the protection that it offered to the entire community from smallpox. The shape of their hair style is fashioned to look like the seed pods. Present day way of life They speak the Tsafiki or Tsáchila language of the Barbacoan language family. Men wear horizontally striped cobalt blue/black and white skirts, and the women wear brightly colored horizontally striped skirts. The Spaniards called them "Colorado" (meaning colored red) because they used to cover their entire bodies in the red juices of the achiote seeds, for prevention against Smallpox, but the Spaniards thought red was indeed their true skin color. Historical notes The largest city of the canton is Santo Domingo de los Colorados and was named after these ethnic groups. Most Ecuadorians consider the shamans of the Tsachila's holders of secrets of the rain forest and of healing powers that would heal whenever the western medicine had failed. For the most part, this country legend was generated by the fame of Abraham Calazacom a tribal chief of the Tsachila's that led his tribe in the fifties and sixties. Their economic activity is limited to harvesting of native tropical products for traditional medicine, especially the Tagua or Corozo nuts that are used to manufacture hand-crafts in many communities of Ecuador. They also cultivate tropical fruits, including different varieties of the genus Musa (bananas), Pineapples, Papayas, Oranges, etc, as well as farming Cocoa plants. References External links Profile from CODENPE Indigenous peoples in Ecuador Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas Province Indigenous peoples of the Andes