Heirs to the Tairona pre-Colombian culture, the Arhuacos have for centuries ruled over these mountain areas. They disseminated them with sacred sites. They venerated the snow-covered peaks. They domesticated fertile valleys and mild plateaus. At the beginning of the 16th century, the conquistadores from Spain forced the indigenous tribes to abandon the fertile area at the foot of the Sierra and to find refuge on its wild and inhospitable peaks. Centuries went by and the abuses of the conquerors were replaced by an overbearing government: in the 1940s politicians and missionaries expropriated the Arhuacos from the land around their capital, Nabusimake, to build a farm there.