Country: Chile

Group: Mapuche

Date Finalized: 4/6/2020

Team: Gabriel Cardenas (team)

The history of the Mapuche is a long history of resisting outsiders and empires; first the Inca, and later the Spaniards. During the time of Spanish colonization in South America, the Mapuche successfully resisted the Spaniard’s incursions into their territory. Not until the later half of the 19th century were the Mapuche finally forcibly incorporated by the Republic of Chile and the Republic of Argentina (Minority Rights, n.d.; Le Bonniec, 2014). Since then a series of policies have resulted in Mapuche land being given to settlers and the neglect of indigenous rights and freedoms. The Mapuche today continue to struggle to fight to reclaim their land in both Chile and Argentina, as well as fight to expose the discrimination they face in these regions (Minority Rights, n.d.). These struggles can be witnessed in recent times as well, such as the imprisonment of three Mapuche leaders (Trahant, 2014). Many claim that the activists were forced into false confessions and the evidence against them were falsified. The overall data quality is high (3) because

Sources

  1. Calbucura, J. (2003). Investing in indigenous people’s territories, a new form of ethnocide? The Mapuche case. Research in Rural Sociology and Development, 229-256.
  2. Minority Rights (n.d.). Mapuche. Minority Rights. Retrieved from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/mapuche-2/
  3. Le Bonniec, F. (2014, March). The Mapuche People’s Struggle in Chile: Land and Territory. In: Take Back the Land ! The Social Function of Land and Housing, Resistance and Alternatives, Passerelle, Ritimo/Aitec/Citego,Retrieved from http://www.citego.org/bdf_fiche-document-1376_en.html
  4. Meza, L. E. (2009). Mapuche struggles for land and the role of private protected areas in Chile. Journal of Latin American Geography, 149-163.
  5. Trahant, M. (2018). Chile: Three indigenous leaders face life in prison for defending human rights. Maven. https://indiancountrytoday.com/the-press-pool/chile-three-indigenous-leaders-face-life-in-prison-for-defending-human-rights-XuKjMvqSSUaZoH8a4Up6iQ