CAYAPAS, a tribe of South American Indians, belonging to the Barbacoan (q.v.) linguistic stock or sub-stock. Their habitat is the lower Cayapa river and adjacent coasts in northern Ecua dor. Traditionally they formerly lived in the upland region about Quito, moving to the coast a short time before the first appearance of Europeans. They have now become much mixed with negroes, and relatively little of their original culture survives.
See S. A. Barrett, "The Cayapa Indians of Ecuador" (Museum of the American Indian, Indian Notes and Monographs, No. 40. New York, 1925).