DEPARTMENT OF CHUQUISACA 19 



DEPARTMENT OF POTOSI 



The Department of Potosi, all of which lies high on the 

 altiplano or among the elevated ridges of the eastern cordillera, 

 has a big representation of Indian communities. The aboriginal 

 population is there large. According to the last census (1900) 

 there were 189,947 Indians in the department, the larger part 

 of whom are probably still living in communities. Every one of 

 its provinces in 1877 showed an important number of contri- 

 buyentes, that is, of community Indians who paid their tax on 

 the basis of communal holdings. In this respect Potosi ranked 

 next to La Paz, as it does also in the total Indian population at 

 present. Porco, perched high upon the mountains and over- 

 flowing onto the altiplano, was largest payer, 10,872 Indians from 

 that province contributing the sum of Bs. 76,862, in the year 

 referred to (1877), as contribution territorial. The Province of 

 Frias, a distinctly industrial region surrounding the celebrated 

 silver mines of Potosi, was the province that showed the smallest 

 number of community Indians. 



In the Province of Charcas, which projects fartoward the north, 

 forming a transition zone between the valley provinces of 

 Cochabamba and the highland areas of Oruro, the communities, 

 though struggling hard to hold their own, are rapidly giving way 

 before the inroads of mestizos, who seek the Indian lands. Here 

 practically all the land that is sheltered and well enough watered 

 to make maize cultivation possible has already passed out of 

 aboriginal possession. The Indians retain little except the cold, 

 less productive heights above some 10,000 feet, where only pota- 

 toes, ocas, and barley can be raised. 17 



DEPARTMENT OF CHUQUISACA 



The old, well-settled Department of Chuquisaca with its 

 capital, Sucre, the intellectual and cultural hub of the Bolivian 

 world, contains certain provinces where the aboriginal system of 



17 L. S. Sagarnaga: Diccionario geografico del Departamento de Potosi [incom- 

 plete], Anuario Nad. Esladist. y Geogr. de Bolivia, La Paz, 1917, pp. Ixxxiii-cclxlii 

 [sic: i.e. ccxcii]. 



