Quechua people or Quecha people, may refer to any of the indigenous people of South America who speak the Quechua languages, which originated among the indigenous people of Peru. Although most Quechua speakers are native to the country of origin, there are some significant populations living in Ecuador, Chile and Argentina; the most common Quechua dialect is Southern Quechua. The Kichwa people of Ecuador speak the Kichwa dialect; the Quechua word for a Quechua speaker is nuna. Some historical Quechua people are: The Chanka people, who lived in the Huancavelica and Apurímac regions of Peru; the Huanca people of the Junín Region of Peru, who spoke Quechua before the Incas did. The Inca, who established the largest empire of the pre-Columbian era; the Chincha, an extinct merchant kingdom of the Ica Region of Peru. The Qolla who inhabited the Potosi Potosi, La Paz departments of Bolivia; the Cañari of Ecuador, who adopted the Quechua language from the Inca. The speakers of Quechua, who total some 4.4 million people in Peru, 1.6 million in Bolivia, 2.2 million in Ecuador, according to Ethnologue 8,200 in Chile, 60,000 in Argentina, a few hundred in Brazil, have an only slight sense of common identity.

The various Quechua dialects are in some cases so different that no mutual understanding is possible. Quechua was not only spoken by the Incas, but by their long-term enemies of the Inca Empire, like the Huanca and the Chanka of Peru, the Kañari in Ecuador. Quechua was spoken by some of these people, for example, the Wanka, before the Incas of Cusco, while other people in Bolivia but in Ecuador, adopted Quechua only in Inca times or afterward. Quechua became Peru's second official language in 1969 under the infamous dictatorship of Juan Velasco Alvarado. There have been tendencies toward nation building among Quechua speakers in Ecuador but in Bolivia, where there are only slight linguistic differences from the original Peruvian version. An indication of this effort is the umbrella organization of the Kichwa peoples in Ecuador, ECUARUNARI; some Christian organizations refer to a "Quechua people", such as the Christian shortwave radio station HCJB, "The Voice of the Andes". The term "Quechua Nation" occurs in such contexts as the name of the Education Council of the Quechua Nation, responsible for Quechua instruction or bilingual intercultural schools in the Quechua-speaking regions of Bolivia.

Some Quechua speakers claim that if nation states in Latin America had been built following the European pattern, they should be a single, independent nation. Despite their ethnic diversity and linguistic distinctions, the various Quechua ethnic groups have numerous cultural characteristics in common, they share many of these with the Aymara, or other indigenous peoples of the central Andes. Traditionally, Quechua identity is locally oriented and inseparably linked in each case with the established economic system, it is based on agriculture in the lower altitude regions, on pastoral farming in the higher regions of the Puna. The typical Andean community extends over several altitude ranges and thus includes the cultivation of a variety of arable crops and/or livestock; the land is owned by the local community and is either cultivated jointly or redistributed annually. Beginning with the colonial era and intensifying after the South American states had gained their independence, large landowners appropriated all or most of the land and forced the native population into bondage.

Harsh conditions of exploitation led to revolts by the indigenous farmers, which were forcibly suppressed. The largest of these revolts occurred 1780–1781 under the leadership of José Gabriel Kunturkanki; some indigenous farmers re-occupied their ancestors' lands and expelled the landlords during the takeover of governments by infamous dictatorships in the middle of the 20th century, such as in 1952 in Bolivia and 1968 in Peru. The agrarian reforms included the illegal expropriation of large landowners. In Bolivia there was a redistribution of the land to the indigenous population as their private property; this disrupted traditional Quechua and Aymara culture based on communal ownership, but ayllus have been retained up to the present time in remote regions, such as in the Peruvian Quechua community of Q'ero. The struggle for land rights continues up to the present time to be a political focal point of everyday Quechua life; the Kichwa ethnic groups of Ecuador which are part of the ECUARUNARI association were able to regain communal land titles or the return of estates—in some cases through militant activity.

The case of the community of Sarayaku has become well known among the Kichwa of the lowlands, who after years of struggle were able to resist expropriation and exploitation of the rain forest for petroleum recovery. A distinction is made between two primary types of joint work. In the case of mink'a, people work together for projects of common interest. Ayni is, in contrast, reciprocal assistance, whereby members of an ayllu help a family to accomplish a large private project, for example house construction, in turn can expect to be helped with a project of their own

Vladimir Alekseyevich Pekhtin is a Russian politician. He was a deputy of the State Duma for the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th convocations, he served as Deputy Chairman of the State Duma. He was the first deputy chairman of the United Russia party. Pekhtin served on the board of electric holding company RAO UES and was the Director General of Kolymaenergo, a subsidiary of RusHydro. Pekhtin resigned from the State Duma in February 2013, following revelations that he owned over $1.3 million in Florida real estate. Vladimir Pekhtin was born on 9 December 1950 in Leningrad, he attended Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1974 with a degree in hydraulic engineering. In 1997, Pekhtin received a Candidate of Sciences degree from the Saint Petersburg State Technical University, he received his Doktor Nauk degree in 1999. From 1982 to 1989, Pekhtin worked at the Kolyma Hydroelectric Station, rising to the Deputy Director position. From 1992 to 1997, he was General Director of a subsidiary of RusHydro, he served on the board of electric holding company RAO UES from 1997 to 1998.

Pekhtin lost the election. In 1994, he became a deputy in the first convocation of the Magadan Regional Duma. Pekhtin was elected to the 3rd convocation of the State Duma in 1999, he headed the United Russia party in the State Duma from April 2001 to December 2003. On 29 March 2003, Pekhtin was elected a member of the supreme council of the United Russia party. Pekhtin was reelected to the fourth convocation of the State Duma in December 2003, he became the first Deputy Head of the United Russia party. In 2007, he was elected to the fifth convocation of the State Duma. Pekhtin supervised the Kremlin's CIS election observation mission for the 2008 parliamentary election in Belarus. While state-controlled media labelled opposition leaders as traitors, several of whom were imprisoned by the Belarusian KGB, Pekhtin said that all of recent elections in former Soviet republics were democratic and fair, he contradicted the conclusions of the OSCE, saying "They just made it up, invented it, to try to show that there was some kind of rot."In 2012, Pekhtin became Chairman of the State Duma's ethics committee.

Pekhtin supported the 2013 Dima Yakovlev Law, which barred US citizens from adopting Russian orphans. On 30 August 2012, Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov published a LiveJournal post entitled "Gold pretzels: United Russia"; the post mentioned Pekhtin as one of the individuals with discrepancies between their declared income and the value of their property. On 31 August, Kommersant published an article about real estate transactions that, according to the opposition, were part of a well-disguised commercial project to sell the land to the state for the construction of highway at a profit of 75 million rubles. A comparison of Pekhtin's 2010 and 2011 declarations showed that in 2011 he purchased an at least three plots of land in St. Petersburg worth over 25 million rubles. In 2011, Pekhtin had declared an income of 2.15 million rubles. His declaration indicated that he and his wife owned nine plots of land, two apartments, two houses, two non-residential buildings, five cars as well as personal watercraft and snowmobiles.

On 12 February 2013, Alexei Navalny, based on publicly available real estate data, reported on Pekhtin's link to real estate in Miami worth $2.5 million. According to the documents, Pekhtin owned an apartment in a Flamingo South Beach condominium and land in Florida; the apartment was purchased for $540,000 in 2007 and the land for $120,000. Published contracts indicated that half of the real estate was owned by Alexei Pekhtin; the son owned an apartment in a residential complex at 1500 Ocean Drive. Prior to December 2012, half of the $1.27 million apartment was owned by the elder Pekhtin. Pekhtin resigned from the State Duma on 20 February 2013, following revelations from Alexei Navalny that he owned over $1.3 million of undeclared real estate in Florida. Both Anatoly Lomakin and Vasily Tolstopyatov resigned shortly after Pekhtin. Pekhtin became a member of the Management Board of RusHydro in April 2013, he became Director General of the RusHydro hydrotechnology institute Lenhydroproject in March 2014

Wildewoman is the second studio album by Brooklyn indie pop band Lucius. It was released on PIAS Recordings, Mom + Pop Music and Dine Alone Records to positive reviews, drawing numerous comparisons to the girl groups of the 1960s. Reviewers praised the album's eclectic mix of musical styles, as well as the vocal performances of lead singers Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig; the album peaked at number 150 on the Billboard 200 chart. The album's cover artwork is a 1964 painting by titled Ice Cream. In selecting the image and Laessig drew inspiration from other iconic, provocative album covers including Sticky Fingers and Nevermind. Laessig said "At the time, was making a statement, bold, we think our show is bold, we’re strong women. There's nothing shy about the way we put ourselves out there. It’s a strong image, and if you’re looking at fifteen record covers on iTunes, what’s going to stick out to you?"The album title was taken from the song of the same name and was intended to evoke "free-spirited women".

It is pronounced analogously to "wildebeest". Wildewoman received positive reviews from critics, many of whom praised the vocal performances and girl group-inspired sound. In a review for Paste, Hilary Saunders wrote that the album was successful in "reintroducing retro girl-group swag to the 21st century at a time when it’s most needed" and went on to call it "one of the most complete indie pop LPs this year". James Christopher Monger of AllMusic praised the album's fusion of styles and the "commanding performances" of Wolfe and Laessig, while Will Hermes' review for Rolling Stone described the album's sound as "fresh" and "thrilling". Writing for Consequence of Sound, Tony Hardy gave the album a more reserved assessment but noted that the band "spins some intriguing sounds". Wildewoman appeared on a number of year-end best album lists, including those compiled by Bob Boilen of NPR's All Songs Considered and the music staff at Amazon.com. The album debuted at No. 150 on the Billboard 200 album chart, with 3,000 copies sold in its first week.

The album has sold 46,000 copies in the US as of March 2016. All songs written by Jess Wolfe unless otherwise noted. "Wildewoman" – 4:11 "Turn It Around" – 3:28 "Go Home" – 3:19 "Hey, Doreen" – 4:41 "Tempest" – 4:09 "Nothing Ordinary" – 3:01 "Two of Us on the Run" – 4:35 "Until We Get There" – 3:28 "Don't Just Sit There" – 3:51 "Monsters" – 3:29 "How Loud Your Heart Gets" – 5:38