Bora Indians

The Bora (Bore-uh) Indians live deep in the Peruvian Amazon along the Ampiyacu River

which is a tributary of the Amazon. Historically enemies with the Huitoto (we-toe-toe) Indians, they have in recent times become close allies with adjoining villages and frequent intermarriage. They are artistically talented tribes, making masks, dolls, rattles, blowguns etc. Many of their crafts are made of bark cloth decorated with vegetable dyes. The bark cloth is made of the inner bark of a fig tree and is beaten until it is paper or cloth like. From the bark cloth they make their clothing which consists of a short skirt for both men and women in the Huitoto. There is a type of palm tree used the make the twine used in bags and hammocks. The Huitoto women traditionally go bare breasted. The Bora tribe dresses similarly, but the women wear a dress of bark cloth as opposed to just a skirt. Both sexes in both tribes wear necklaces, feathers and sometimes white body paint or red body paint  made of onoto or urucu which is a pod that crushes

to a reddish paste.