Chana

The Chaná were the southern branch of the Chaná-Timbú peoples, riverine groups who in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries occupied the floodlands and islands of the Paraná, from its meeting with the Paraguay to the Río de la Plata and the lower Uruguay. Related bands included the Mbegua, Timbú and Mepene, among others; their riverine ceramic tradition, shaped by Guaraní influences after about 1200, is known as the Goya-Malabrigo culture.

They were semi-nomadic hunters, fishers and gatherers who also planted small plots of corn and manioc, spending much of their lives in dugout canoes and camping along the waterways. Their guttural languages are usually grouped with the Charrúa tongues; the priest Dámaso Larrañaga recorded Chaná in 1823.

Early contact brought smallpox, encomienda levies and raids. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Chaná merged or scattered among the Guaraní and Charrúa, disappearing as a distinct people.