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The Mapuche are the pre-Hispanic inhabitants of Central and Southern Chile and Argentina. They are also known by the Spanish name Araucanos.
Mapuche means people (che) of the land (mapu). They had an economy based on agriculture; their social organisation consisted of extended families.
Mapuche encompasses different ethnic groups which shared a common social and religious structure with language and economics as a basis. Their influence extended between the river Aconcagua and the Argentinian pampa: the Picunches lived in the central valleys of Chile (they integrated with the Incan Empire and then with the Spaniards), the Mapuches inhabited the Valleys between the Itata and Toltén Rivers, the Huilliches, the Lafkenches, and the Pehuenches. Also, the northern Aonikenk (called Patagons by Magellan) ethnic group of the pampa regions made contact with some Mapuche groups, adopting their language and some culture; they are the Tehuelches. Mapuches successfully resisted attempts by the Inca empire to subjugate them, in spite of lacking a nationwide organization. (The Quechua word arauco means "rebel", and is the root of the name "Araucanian" or the Spanish araucano.) The Mapuche fought against the Spaniards, and, using the Bio Bio River as a natural frontier, they resisted colonization; this war is known as the War of Arauco, and is immortalized in the epic poem La Araucana. When Chile split from the Spanish crown, some Mapuche chiefs sided with the colonists. After Chile's independence from Spain, Mapuches coexisted and traded with their neighbors .
The Chilean Army put an end to the War of Arauco in the 1860s, and, using a combination of force and diplomacy, Chile's government and some Mapuche leaders signed a treaty to incorporate the Araucanian territories into Chile.
Mapuche descendants now live across southern Chile and Argentina; some maintain their traditions and continue living from agriculture, but a growing majority have migrated to cities in search for better economic opportunities. In recent years, there has been an attempt by the Chilean government to reddress some of the inequities of the past, by, for example, validating the Mapudungun language and culture by including them in the curriculum of elementary schools around Temuco.
According to official Chilean statistics, 100% of Chilean Mapuche have some non-Mapuche ancestors and more than 90% of Chileans have Native American (mostly Mapuche) ancestors. However, fewer than 10% of the Chilean population recognize their Native American ancestry. (See Demographics of Chile.)
Mapuche languages are spoken in Chile and to a smaller extent in Argentina. They have two branches: Huillice and Mapudungun.
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