Indigenous group

Pech children sitting outside



One of the Pech homes


Pech children holding an armadillo

The Pech, formerly known as the Paya live in eleven different villages around Honduras, mostly in the savanna. Most of the Pech people live in Dulce Nombre de Culmi, and Santa Maria del Carbon, even though the Pech language is almost extinct in Santa Maria de Culmi. The Pech population has greatly decreased due to assimilation and colonial pressures.In 1990 it was reported that there was only 1,800 Pech, and in 1982 it was reported that there were only 17 Pech that were 100% Pech. As the Honduran frontier spread eastward and eventually intruded into the land of the Pech, the Pech villages were separated, there population declined to as low as 600 in 1920, and most of their traditional culture was lost.In some places in Las Marias the culture is still kept alive although they no longer wear breech cloths, they do still catch iguanas with their hands, use handmade harpoons to catch fish, use dugout canoes, and grow maze, beans, and cassava.