Mataco Guaicuru

The Mataco Guaicuru group gathers the Matacoan and Guaicuruan peoples of the Gran Chaco, among them the Wichí, Nivaclé and Maká and the Guaicuru, Moqoit and Abipones. The Guaicuruans were nomadic warriors who took to horses after the Spanish founded Asunción in 1537, while the Matacoans settled along the rivers and lived by fishing, gathering and small-scale farming.

The Abipones had given up farming for cattle and horse raiding by 1641. On Good Friday 1686 some 800 Moqoit sacked Esteco, and in 1632 the Wichí and Toba destroyed Santiago de Guadalcázar. In 1743 Jesuits opened the San Javier reduction for the Moqoit, and their expulsion in 1768 left the missions without protectors.