Some Background Information

Lamanai Archaeological Reserve is one of the largest and most visited Maya archaeological reserves in Belize.

Indian Church Village is a small settlement of around 260 people sharing a border with Lamanai. One would think that having such a famous site next door would put Indian Church on the map... This has not exactly been the case.

Complex History...

Lamanai is known to be the longest occupied site in the Northern Maya Lowlands (aka Northern Belize and Northern Yucatán areas in Mexico). Radiocarbon dates indicate Maya occupation from ~1500 BCE, and archaeological research shows an almost unbroken occupation spanning 3000 years until European contact. Then follows the Spanish and British Colonial history, which is visible through two 16th century Franciscan Catholic churches and a 19th century British Sugar Mill.

Lamanai has been at the centre of political, social and historical turmoil since the 16th century, culminating in the foundation of Indian Church Village by Guatemalan and Salvadorian refugees escaping from Civil War in the 1980s [1].

Location

When Indian Church came together in the 1980s (though some claim continuity through the Spanish and British colonial periods), the village was actually located inside what is now Lamanai Archaeological Reserve [2].

In 1990-91, the whole settlement was moved a mile south to give space to develop the archaeological reserve for tourism. The move was actually welcomed by the community, but getting used to new boundaries and having to use the site as a tourist still causes tension [1,3,4].

Indian Church actually got its name from the archaeological remains now located within Lamanai. Before archaeologists identified the Mayan name of "Lamanai", people called the site "Indian Church" because of the Spanish Churches that were used by (and also architecturally resembled) "Indian" (meaning native Maya) populations [5].

Questioning cultural continuity and rights to Lamanai

The main questions remaining are: Do the people of Indian Church Village have an emotional and physical connection to Lamanai? If so, what is that connection? What rights does this local community have to Lamanai?

Unrecorded history

Indian Church Village history (in fact the history of the past 200 years for the region) is largely unrecorded. There is so much more to learn in order to understand the people living around Lamanai. Debates about cultural affinity, Indigenous rights, heritage management and community engagement further complicate things [3].

Because of this ambiguous history plus the academic and management battles that come with the heritage discipline and conservation guidelines, the settlement's rights to Lamanai have been questioned and debated over the past 30 years – preventing Indian Church from fully participating to gain more visibility and associated economic benefits [3].

Left out of tourism...

Needless to say, tourist visitation at Indian Church Village is close to zero [3], while Lamanai sees thousands of visitors every year [6].

Despite this, there are many guest houses and restaurants in the village. Becoming a tour guide is one of the few stable sources of income for Indian Church residents and Lamanai site managers and staff tend to be from the village. Yet, guided tours, online offers, tourist signs or museum panels never mention Indian Church [3].

Due to the lack of internet connection, electricity and bad roads, many of the Indian Church facilities and activities are unknown to tourists and even to tour providers.

What is next?

The relationships between sites like Lamanai and Indian Church powerfully demonstrate pressing global challenges of climate change, imbalanced tourism, underrepresentation, and recovery from crisis, underscoring the need for greater action to support heritage places and the people who care for them. Lamanai's worldwide significance and preservation is urgent and undoubtedly vital to the communities surrounding them. In 2022, Lamanai and its wider cultural landscape, including Indian Church Village, was successfully nominated to the World Monuments Watch, which can help to tell the story of Indian Church and its people.

Lamanai is as socially significant today as it was 3,000 years ago, due in part to its longevity, its association with historical events and their memory in the present, its symbolism for descendant, indigenous and migrant groups and its contribution to nation-building [7].

Written by Ella Békési

References

[1] McCollum, S. 2009 What is Poverty in this Place? Discourses of Poverty at a Belizean Village. M.A. dissertation, York University, Toronto, Ontario.

[2] Mayfield, T. D. 2015 The Nineteenth Century British Plantation Settlement at Lamanai, Belize 1837-1868. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson.

*This dissertation includes the 2014 excavation at Lamanai where we found evidence of Indian Church Village residents living on site. It is also one of the few reports that look into the British settlement at Lamanai in such detail.

[3] Békési, E. E. 2017 Engaging with Non-descendant Communities: The Relationship Between the Small Village of Indian Church and the Government Supervised Archaeological Reserve of Lamanai. M.A. dissertation, Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London

[4] AROTECH 1995 Maya Archaeological Site Development Project (MASDP): Feasibility Study. Submitted to the Commission of the European Community and the Government of Belize, March 1995. Manuscript on file, Institute of Archaeology, Belmopan, Belize

[5] Graham, E. A. 2011 Maya Christians and Their Churches in Sixteenth-Century Belize. Gainesville: University Press, Florida.

[6] Belize Tourism Board, 2018 Travel and Tourism Statistics Digest 2018. [online]

*More specifically: Table 4.1 Visitors to Major Archaeological Sites by Month Table 4.2 Visitors to Major Archaeological Sites by Location, Table 4.3 Visitors to Major Archaeological Sites by Visitor Type 2018, Table 3.13 Top 25 Tours for FSTV Cruise Visitors, Fig. 3.7 Top 10 Sites Visited by Cruise Visitors

Belize Tourism Board 2019 Travel and Tourism Statistics Digest 2019: Cruise Passenger Arrivals 2013-2019. [online] [online].

*More specifically: Page 16: Table 3.11 Top 10 Sites Visited by Cruise Visitors, Page 18: Table 3.12 Top 10 Activities by Cruise Visitors, Page 20: Table 3.13 Top 25 Tour Packages for Cruise Visitors

For further information about travel and tourism visit: https://belizetourismboard.org/belize-tourism/statistics/

[7] WMF Nomination of Lamanai and its wider cultural landscape to the 2022 World Monuments Watch. https://www.wmf.org/project/lamanai

Additional Reading

Jonas, S. 2013 Guatemalan migration in times of civil war and post-war challenges. [online] Migration Policy Institute.

Reference Excellence Framework 2014 Supporting tourism and recognition of Maya heritage at Lamanai and on Ambergris Caye [online].