[robarr]

Quite the contrary, the management of the different ecological floors was the specialty of the inhabitants of the Andes, even now. The same community owns and uses land at different altitudes, which can range from 1000 to 4000 meters above sea level. This generated an economy based on the exchange of goods along vertical lines.

https://haubooks.org/reciprocity-and-redistribution/

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/24/obituaries/24murra.html

[hinkley]

Might have been an urban legend or someone confusing their locations.

There was a very similar model in California as well. Seasonal migration from the sea to the hills and back. Given the supposed patterns of settlement of the Americas maybe this is not particularly surprising.