TIERRAS ILUSORIAS Y PROMESAS VACÍAS: INDÍGENAS EN LA FRONTERA PUNTANO CORDOBESA (DÉCADAS DE 1870 y 1880)

Abstract

During the 1870s, within the framework of the policies applied by the Argentine government aimed at occupying the territories belonging to the indigenous people of the Pampas area, different Ranquel contingents were installed (by imprisonment or by pre-sentation) in the forts Villa Mercedes and Sarmiento which, together with other forts, gave entity to the Puntano-Cordovan border between 1869-1884. While the Ministry of War and Navy ordered their militarization, the Franciscans, in agreement with the Ministry of Justice, Worship, and Public Instruction, tried to Christianize them. In this framework, the national government promised them the delivery of land, livestock, and farming tools. In our opinion, these offers were part of a strategy of the political-military power - which is articulated with the missionary project - tending to neutralize the indigenous people installed there at a time when the advance of the Southern Border to the Negro and Neuquén rivers was planned. The work reconstructs the unsuccessful efforts by Ranquel leaders - mediated by missionaries and soldiers - to access some plots in the current south of Puntano-Cordovan. It also considers the context of inter-jurisdictional disputes between the national government and the authorities of the provinces of Córdoba and San Luis for the usufruct of such lands.