They once spoke the now-extinct Tonkawa language believed to have been a language isolate not related to any other indigenous tongues.

After a short while, the influence of this indigenous tongue was so great that the newcomers forgot their native Greek and started using the language of Side.

According to the 2005 Census, the municipality had a total population of 4,780, many of whom were proficient of an indigenous tongue.

In the local indigenous tongue, the mountain is called Turututu, but records show settlers calling it Black Butte as early as 1855.

Current research doesn't indicate if that was or was not a translation from an indigenous tongue, e.g. Creek or Seminole.

Today, while French is the official language, 28 indigenous tongues are still spoken.

Under an ambitious plan announced in January, the French Government has told state schools and teachers in regions with indigenous tongues to start preparing for bilingual education.

Whoever becomes president, analysts say, must put together a coalition representative of this multicultural country, where 50 percent of the 8.3 million people speak an indigenous tongue.

But few materials are available in Mixteco or other indigenous tongues, in part because they barely exist in written form.

Yanacocha - "black lake" in the indigenous Quechua tongue - sits in one of the poorest agricultural regions of Peru.