Pehuenche

The Pehuenche were mountain dwellers of the south-central Andes on both the Chilean and Argentine sides, named for the monkey-puzzle tree. Its pine-nut harvest, gathered in the high forests between March and May, anchored their yearly round: winters were spent in the valleys and summers above the tree line. They hunted guanacos and deer and later herded feral horses for meat dried into charqui.

Their early language, perhaps Huarpean, was lost as Araucanization proceeded; by the mid-eighteenth century Pehuenche generally spoke Mapudungun. They entered Spanish records with clashes south of the Tolten in 1575, and two thousand warriors under chief Quilacan sacked Chillan in 1599.

After the Parliament of Quillin of 1647 they alternated parleys with raids, including Maule in 1657, when they opened a new Andean pass. In 1820 they fought the Tehuelche on the Senguerr River.