Het

Het is the name the Jesuit Thomas Falkner gave in 1774 to the nomadic peoples of the Argentine Pampas, whom he divided into the Taluhet, Diuihet and Chechehet, with the Querandí counted among the Diuihet.

They were tireless runners who chased down deer, rheas and guanacos, using the bolas to bring down game and, later, Spanish cavalry; they wintered in leather tents by the water, ranged inland in summer, gathered wild seeds and made locust flour. They worshipped a high god, Soychu.

The Querandí met Spanish settlers at the founding of Buenos Aires in 1536, defeated them on the Luján River, and killed Juan de Garay, its refounder, in 1583. Horses from the abandoned settlement made them mounted raiders holding the Spanish frontier for two centuries. From the late seventeenth century Mapuche crossed the Andes, and the Het were absorbed into the araucanized Pampas peoples, the northern Taluhet becoming the Ranqueles.