The Quichua word for "savage" – a group of Ecuadorian indigenous people considered violent and dangerous to outsiders.

 

 

 Philip James Elliot 

(October 8, 1927 – January 8, 1956)

 

 

Leaving for Ecuador

In the summer of 1950, while at Camp Wycliffe (Cameron Townsend's linguistics training camp in Oklahoma), Elliot practiced the skills necessary for writing down a language for the first time by working with a former missionary to the Quechua people.

 

 The missionary told him of the Huaorani – also called the "Auca", the Quichua word for "savage" – a group of Ecuadorian indigenous people considered violent and dangerous to outsiders.

 

 Elliot remained unsure about whether to go to Ecuador or India until July. His parents and friends wondered if he might instead be more effective in youth ministry in the United States, but considering the home church "well-fed", he felt that international missions should take precedence.^[7]