Cunco

The Cunco were a coastal branch of the Williche, the southernmost arm of the Mapuche family, holding the rainy forested shore and Chilean Coast Range between Valdivia and the Maullín River.

They spoke Mapudungun, farmed maize, potatoes and quinoa, raised chilihueques, and spent each spring and summer on the coast gathering shellfish, hunting sea lions and fishing from wooden dalca boats, dwelling in large ruca huts under small local chiefs.

After the great Mapuche rising of 1598 they became the most relentless enemies of the Spaniards in Osorno, besieging the city until its settlers abandoned it in 1602 and then destroying it. Through the rest of the seventeenth century they harried every party trying to pass between Valdivia and Chiloé, keeping the forested coast a closed and warlike frontier.