Rangkull Mapu

Rangküll Mapu is the country of the Rankülche, or Ranquel, in the central pampas region. Their communities occupied a landscape of grassland, woodland, lagoons and dunes, maintaining relations with other Indigenous peoples and the colonial frontier. The name joins the people to their land, a region traversed by paths between the plains and the Andean world.

During the later eighteenth century groups associated with the Ranquel established themselves in the central pampas. Their leaders negotiated, traded and fought with neighbouring peoples and the authorities of Buenos Aires. Around the Salinas Grandes and the eastern dunes, different communities maintained their own relationships with the frontier. Their history was shaped by both movement across the plains and efforts to defend their territory.