Puelche people

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Puelches

Gününa künä
Regions with significant populations
Argentina (Cuyo and Pampas), Chile
Languages
Spanish, Mapuche; Historically Puelche
Related ethnic groups
Tehuelche, Huarpe Pehuenches, Huarpe

The Gününa küna, or sometimes, Puelche (Mapudungun: pwelche, "people of the east") are indigenous peoples living east of the Andes Mountains in Chile and Southwest Argentina. They spoke the Puelche language. The name "Puelche" was not native, but was given to them by the Mapuche. They were annihilated by plagues and epidemics in the late 18th century, with survivors merging into other groups such as the Mapuche, Het, and Tehuelche.

The Puelche are commemorated in the scientific names of two species of lizards, Liolaemus gununakuna and Liolaemus puelche, which are endemic to Argentina.^[1][2][3] Currently, there are efforts of revitalizing the language.

The Puelches like the Pehuenches were hunters, fishermen and gatherers. They used bows, arrows and after the arrival of the Mapuche, spears. ^[4] They were tall and stout and dressed in fur quillangos (cloaks) and turbans of rolled threads with nets that covered their heads and on which they attached feather ornaments. Their dwellings were built with branches and hides. They cooked the food and heated the water in bark containers with hot stones. They made canoes with larch boards, cooked and caulked, easily disassembled to be carried on their shoulders through the Andean passes, which allowed them to interact with the Huilliches but above all with the Chonos of southern Chile, very close to them.^[5]