Wichi

The Wichí, whose name means people, were long known as Mataco, a name now considered insulting. They belong to the Chaco Central and Chaco Austral, chiefly along the Bermejo and Pilcomayo rivers, with the Weenhayek branch in Bolivia. Fishermen, hunters and gatherers, they had largely settled in riverside villages by the sixteenth century, when invading Ava Guaraní pushed some bands north and south-east.

The first Spanish record of them dates to 1609. In 1632 they joined the Toba in destroying Santiago de Guadalcázar, and a Jesuit reduction attempted on the Bermejo in 1635 failed.

Jesuits founded the San Ignacio mission for Toba and Mataco in 1756, while Franciscans opened Nuestra Señora de las Angustias de Zenta in 1779; it dwindled after San Ramón de la Nueva Orán was founded nearby in 1794.