Indigenous people of Oaxaca
![Indigenous people from all parts of Oaxaca participate wearing traditional clothes and artifacts in a celebration known as](/Images/godic/202501/04/Guelaguetza010609.JPG")
![Primary areas occupied by the different indigenous people in Oaxaca](/Images/godic/202501/04/Oaxaca_indigenous_people.svg0609.png")
![Zapotec funerary urn in the British Museum](/Images/godic/202501/04/British_Museum_Zapotec_funerary_urn_10609.jpg")
![Mixtec king and warlord Eight Deer Jaguar Claw (right) Meeting with Four Jaguar, in a depiction from the precolumbian Codex Zouche-Nuttall.](/Images/godic/202501/04/Oaxaca_ocho_venado0609.png")
The Indigenous people of Oaxaca are descendants of the inhabitants of what is now the state of Oaxaca, Mexico who were present before the Spanish invasion. Several cultures flourished in the ancient region of Oaxaca from as far back as 2000 BC, of whom the Zapotecs and Mixtecs were perhaps the most advanced, with complex social organization and sophisticated arts.