PART II. THE ARAUCANIANS OF 

 ARGENTINA 



INTRODUCTION 



The history of the Argentine Araucanians has not been written, 

 and scattered information in historical Hterature now available 

 does not seem to be in agreement. Two reliable writers, Cooper and 

 Canals Frau, differ in their summary statements which appear in the 

 Handbook of South American Indians (Bur. Amer. Ethnol. Bull. 

 143, vol. 2, 1946). Cooper seems inclined to believe that the Argentine 

 Araucanians may have come from Chile. He says: "The survival 

 beyond the 17th century in great numbers of the Chilean Mapuche 

 and Huilliche, the severe pressure exerted by the Whites on the 

 Mapuche and especially on the Huilliche in earlier Colonial days, and 

 scattered historical clues on the 17th-century Chilean Huilliche and 

 Pehuenche raids or intrusions into the Argentine Pampa, all suggest, 

 without however proving, that the bulk of the Argentine Araucanians 

 stem from the Chilean Mapuche and Huilliche, especially the latter" 

 (p. 694). Canals Frau infers from his sources that the Argen- 

 tine Araucanians are Araucanized Indians whose habitat was the 

 valleys on the eastern slopes of the Cordillera and the plains east of 

 these slopes (pp. 761-766). 



My informants added little to clarify matters. Typical of their 

 varying statements are the following. One old Argentine informant 

 said, "We [Argentine and Chilean Araucanians] belong to the same 

 big family. Formerly the Araucanians that now live in Chile lived 

 here, and we were exactly alike; but now we differ a little: the 

 Chilean Araucanians live as it is best to live in Chile and we live here 

 like the Argentines do. Their language in Chile differs a little from 

 ours, but we can understand them, and they understand us." Another 

 old informant believed, from what he had heard old people say, that 

 the Argentine Araucanians originated in Chile and crossed through the 

 Andean passes into what is now Argentina in order to put up a supply 

 of jerked guanaco, deer, and rhea. Old people had said that when 

 this was done, most of them returned to Chile, but some re- 

 mained and settled down in what is now Argentina. Quoting another 

 informant: "My great-grandfather was the cacique where Ketchu- 

 quina area is today ; that was when the great malon took place [Gen- 

 eral Roca's 1879 campaign]. When the malon was on, he took all his 



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