At the time of its "discovery", the whole of America was described as a wild, untouched land and thus seemed free for European settlement. However, the settlers did not realise that the indigenous peoples who lived there were highly developed cultures that managed and cared for nature in deep contact with its rhythms and principles.
In the course of the land seizure, indigenous groups were pushed further and further out of their territories all over the American continent. This was also the case for the Kogi in Colombia, who retreated to the high mountain valleys of the Sierra Nevada and preserved their culture there in seclusion.