Pehuenche

Pehuenche (or Pewenche) are an indigenous people of South America. They live in the Andes, primarily in present-day south central Chile and adjacent Argentina. Their name derives from their dependence for food on the seeds of the Araucaria araucana or monkey-puzzle tree (pehuen or pewen in Mapudungun).^[1] In the 16th century, the Pehuenche lived in the mountainous territory from approximately 34 degrees to 40 degrees south. Later they became Araucanized and partially merged with the Mapuche peoples. In the 21st century, they still retain some of their ancestral lands.

Pehuenche groups participated in various armed conflicts in the 17th and 18th centuries, usually by "descending" from the mountains to the western lowlands of Chile. As such they attacked the Spanish around Maule River in 1657,^[2] the Mapuche in January 1767,^[3] and the Spanish of Isla del Laja on late 1769.^[4] In the 1860s amidst the Chilean invasion of Araucanía the Pehuenche declared themselves neutral.^[5] The Pehuenche chief Pichiñán is reported to have spoken against the Moluches, who wanted war, claiming that they engaged in robbery and received for that just punishments by Chileans.^[5] Historian José Bengoa claims Pehuenche neutrality was indebted to the fact that their lands in the Andes were not subject to colonization.^[5] However the encroaching Argentine and Chilean advances was such that in March 1881 Pehuenches assaulted the Argentine outpost of Chos Malal killing the whole garrison of 25–30 soldiers.^[6]