The Emberá Indians of Panama are accomplished crafts workers and produce elaborate and detailed tagus carvings from seeds of the Tagua tree. These people are generally quite small and sinewy, and dress as they did when Columbus arrived in the 1500s.

The Emberá lifestyle is primitive but remarkably easy for a forest-bound people. Before the Panamanian government declared the Rio Chagres area a national park, the subsistence-level Emberá hunted and farmed. With the National Park Declaration, they had to find an alternative life style, and have turned to tourism - welcoming tourists to their villages.