The Chiquillanes were a small nomadic indigenous ethnic group from Chile that lived in what is now the central and western area of the Andes mountain range. This social group used to divide into small communities of less than 100 people to carry out the food collection.
At first they were confused with the Pehuenches, which was another population very similar to the Chiquillanes, but these were not nomads. Furthermore, although they lived in the Andes mountain range in south-central Chile, the Pehuenches also lived in southwestern Argentina; that is, on both sides of the mountain range.
The pine nuts were quite consumed by the kids. Source: Piterquin
They were considered brave, barbarian, and savage Indians. They were basic in terms of their cultural development, which is why there are few references. The first known date from the time of colonization; The most prominent is a letter that Pedro de Valdivia wrote to the emperor in Concepción, on October 26, 1552.
In this letter, Valdivia refers to them as natives of the area; that is to say, it does not classify them as children, since this name was given to them later. Likewise, Valdivia does not identify them with other ethnic groups, but rather recognizes them as a different one.
Location
This town was located in the central and western zone of the Andean mountain range. Their estates extended from Santiago to Chillán and the areas surrounding the Cachapoal and Colchagua rivers, which were very fertile lands where this ethnic group settled until the arrival of the Spanish.
With the arrival of the Spaniards and to defend their territory, in 1545 the Chiquillanes faced the first. However, they were defeated and confined to live in encomiendas; that is, under new institutions that sought to organize the colonized peoples and whose objective was to consolidate the new Spanish government.
characteristics
Economy
This tribe made constant steps through the mountains to exchange products with other ethnic groups. The changes were made especially with the Querandíes, who were a population that was in the northeast sector of the area called Pampas (now Argentina). Later, when the Spanish arrived, the commercialization was done with these.
The months of greatest economic movement were December and January, in which the children traveled to San Fernando to exchange artifacts with the Spaniards from Colchagua. In exchange they obtained wheat and other products such as leather, salt, reins, objects made with braided leather and baskets, among others.
Salt was one of the most appreciated and valued products by the Spanish. This was extracted by the children of the lagoons located in the valleys of the Andean mountain range, where the salt was abundant and of good quality.
On several occasions, the Santiago town council issued ordinances through which it regulated trade between indigenous people and Spaniards. These regulations prohibited the sale of wine, spirits and weapons.
Feeding
The chiquillanes were a spice-gathering people and skilled hunters. Their main foods were guanaco, ñandú, puma and, in general, all kinds of meats. For this ethnic group, horses and mares were also important, since they used their skins to make awnings where they took shelter and slept.
Likewise, they fed on roots and pine nuts, fruits of the araucaria that occur in the Andes Mountains. The pine nut comes from the tree called pehuén or araucaria, which is shaped like a pyramid and can reach 40 meters high. For the Mapuches - another indigenous ethnic group in Chile - it is a sacred tree.
The pine nut was a fruit that was consumed by both indigenous children and other tribes, and it was considered a very nutritious food that was consumed cooked or roasted. They also made flour and a fermented nectar.
Pine nuts could be stored underground for better conservation, burying bags in the soil or in a water well; in this last way they cooked very quickly.
The whole family participated in the seed collection and it was done between the months of February to April. The seeds are yellowish in color, not very sweet on the palate and of a particular texture. They are wrapped in a kind of firm and resistant cover, similar to the pineapple.
Clothing
There is little data on how the children dressed, but it is known that they turned the skins obtained from the wild animals they hunted into dresses.
From those skins they also made awnings for their rustic huts, which was what they used as a home. These structures were easy to disassemble and move, which was necessary for them due to their nomadic nature.
The children preferred to use the skins of the huanaco, a type of lama common in the area. Second, they had a preference for the skin of horses.
Traditions
They were a people who believed in life beyond death. For them, the person who had died and was buried fought wars; For this reason they buried the dead in caves or under stones together with their personal belongings and weapons.
On the other hand, in summer they used to execute female infanticide. What they did was attack the Mapuche rucas - the houses where the Mapuche indigenous people lived - and stole their women and food. From this it can be concluded that it was not a pure population, but rather mixed with others.
Political and social organization
As mentioned before, the children were a nomadic population of approximately 100 people for each group. It is presumed that there was a tribal chief, but they did not have a complex social organization; rather they were basic and of very primitive ideas.
When moving through the mountain range they settled on awnings, and around these they made their lives based on gathering food and hunting. Each group had to respect that constituency without invading another's; otherwise, there were struggles to defend their territory.
Their language was millkayak, which was not a pure or whole language and was guttural. From the data collected on this population, we have as a reference what was expressed by Luis de Valdivia, a Jesuit who wrote a book called Límense. In this publication he mentions a word from that language that was called, whose meaning is “people”.
References
- "Rancagua and the valleys of Chapoal and Colchagua (1500-2007)" (S / F) in Chilean Memory. Retrieved on April 22, 2019 from Memoria Chilena: memoriachilena.gob.cl
- "The Pehuenche pass and its contribution to regional development (1658-1846)" (2018) in Scielo. Retrieved on April 22, 2019 from Scielo: scielo.conicyt.cl
- Sánchez Ocampo, A. "Pehuén seeds: sacred fruit of the Mapuche people" (2015) in La Tribuna, the newspaper of the province of Bio Bio. Retrieved on April 23, 2019 from La Tribuna: latribuna.cl
- "Political and social organization" (S / F) at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Retrieved on April 23, 2019 from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile: uc.cl
- "History of Chile: Origins of Chile. Chiquillanes, Pehuenches and Tehuelches ”(S / F) in Biography of Chile. Retrieved on April 23, 2019 from Biography of Chile: biografiadechile.cl