According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the Mayan Indians are the most important of the cultured native peoples of North America, both in the degree of their civilization and in population and resources. Formerly occupying a territory of about 60,000 square miles, including the whole of the peninsula of Yucatán, Southern Mexico, together with the adjacent portion of Northern Guatemala, the Mayan Indians are still constitute the principal population of the same region outside of the larger cities.

Their language is still spoken by about 300,000 persons, of whom two-thirds are pure Maya, the remainder being whites and of mixed blood.

From Life In a Guatemalan Indian Village by Benjamin D. Paul of Stanford University:

t the southern edge of the broad highland belt that runs through Guatemala, captured in a mountain basin commanded by three towering volcanoes, lies Lake Atitlán. A score of Indian settlements, dwarfed by the mountain backdrop, lie scattered around the twisting shores of the 1ake which measures twelve miles long and half as wide.

Like the million and a half Indians that make up half of Guatemala's present population, the residents of the Lake Atitlán basin speak dialects of the Maya-Quiche linguistic stock, akin to the language once spoken by the builders of the fabled Maya Empire of lowland Guatemala and Yucatan. The women weave on backstrap looms, the men cultivate corn on mountain slopes and valley plots, and the people of different villages exchange goods in open markets. This is part of the pattern that existed before Columbus. But equally marked is the impact of the Spanish conquerors upon their culture. Each village has its courthouse and Catholic church; coffee has become the indispensable beverage; and cash is the medium of exchange."

The Mayan Indians that create our beadwork are from the Lake Atitlan region.  The word "atitlan" in Mayan means "the place where the rainbow gets its colors."  Several years ago some American women taught them Native American Indian beading.  Now many villagers of all ages from children to the mothers and fathers bead.  Their work is produced under the principles of Fair Trade.

Mayan Indian sense of design and color reflect the "the place where the rainbow gets its colors".  Every piece is unique, rarely are two items exactly the same. Your purchase helps these indigenous people survive and prosper in a very poor area of the world.