Ugha warriors at Akator.
The Ugha were an ancient tribe that lived in the western Amazon in the city of Akator. Building a primitive society six to eight thousand years ago, the Ugha received thirteen visitors from above, whom they worshiped as gods. These gods taught them irrigation, animal domestication and other technology. Eventually, the Ugha, with the help of their gods, built up the city of Akator.
The Ugha became one of the most advanced civilizations in the Americas, and either they or their benefactors gave technology to many of the other civilizations of the pre-Columbian New World, including the Maya, Aztec, and Inca. They also had contact with the indigenous people of Nazca, who modeled their own heads after the Ugha gods.
Some of Ugha warriors wore paints on their torso, face, and limbs, and were dressed in simple loin cloths. Many warriors kept their hair was fixed in pony tail-like styles. Ugha warriors also used ritual scarring and earrings to mark their bodies. They used very primitive weapons such as bolas, blow-darts, primitive stone axes and spears.
In the cave tunnel that connected the valley of Akator to the outside world, near a waterfall, the Ugha recorded their history in pictoral form, and developed secret hiding chambers from which to ambush trespassers.
In the 1500s, the Ugha encountered Spanish conquistadors, led by Francisco de Orellana, who stole the one of the crystal skulls from the Temple of Akator, and looted the city. It was believed that the Ugha did not survive after contact with the conquistadors.
They were believed to have gone extinct, but around 1957, Harold Oxley discovered they were still alive as a culture when he visited Akator, trying to return the Crystal Skull of Akator. However, he did not mention their existence to the outside world. Later that year, Oxley revisited Akator with Indiana Jones, Mutt Williams, Marion Ravenwood, and George McHale, they discovered the Ugha paintings in the cave, and then were attacked by Ugha warriors hiding in the tunnel that connected the valley to the outside world. Chasing the intruders down the steps toward their city, the Ugha eventually took down and captured the five outsiders. Oxley revealed that he had the Crystal Skull in his possession, the Ugha retreated and allowed the team to climb the Temple of Akator.
When Irina Spalko entered the valley, her henchmen gunned down the primitive guardians of the valley, possibly resulting in their extinction. After Indiana Jones and his team returned the Skull, a flying saucer was revealed below the temple, altering the valley's structure, letting thus the neighboring river flood into it, erasing the Ugha civilization forever.
Appearances
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (First appearance)
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (comic)