“There was resistance and defense”

Conflicts, catechism, and indigenous territories between the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Abstract

This is the first narrative analysis of a nationwide research currently being developed on the indigenous issue in the final decades of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century, where we delimit some themes that characterize the violations against the indigenous peoples of those times. The first of these is the practice of bringing the indigenous people to what was thought to be the civilized world through catechism missions, moving on to the missions of exploration through the country's interiors, which were occupied by indigenous populations, reaching the practices of resistance where these peoples pressured state authorities for their rights and, finally, the open conflicts that decimated entire peoples. The thesis is that the violations that occurred during that transitional period reverberate to contemporary times, especially in the advance over indigenous territories and the recurring actions of extermination of these populations.