This article explores “developmental indigenism” as a particular articulation of the “indigenist” policies of the Colombian state, which started to take shape at the end of the 1950s. We describe and analyze the implementation and consolidation of “developmental indigenism” in a frontier region such as Guainía. Based on documents, letters and reports, we show how “developmental indigenism” entailed a double adequation between state agents and indigenous communities. Understanding this double adequation destabilizes simplifications regarding how state and indigeneity are constructed in frontier regions such as Amazonia.
