The Araucanian

The Araucanian culture are suggested, by archaeological evidence, to exist starting around 500 B . C . in the territory of present-day Chile. The aboriginal Araucanians were hunters and gatherers and practiced horticulture and incipient agriculture. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Araucanians were divided into three geographically contiguous ethnic groups: the Picunche in the north, the Mapuche in the central-south, and the Huilliche in the southern section.

One of the greatest resistance of indiginous people from the colonizers and other indiginous people of Chile were the Araucanians. The Inca's had conquored the Picunche and the Mapuche, but could not penetrate the Huilliche. The spanish, in numbers, were able to conquor from the land from the Araucanians down to Rio Bio-Bio and beyond during the last major rebellion of 1880-1882. Unfortunaley, the survivors of the last resistance were forced into reservations in Chile and arrested or confined into remote areas in Argentina.


Araucanians on a reservation circa 1900