Inhabiting the “desert”. Rights to land and indigenous territoriality in the south of Neuquen, 1885-1955

Abstract

In the National Territory of Neuquen, once the military campaigns that intended to occupy indigenous lands were finished, the reconstruction of communities led by the mapuche people created a dynamic region in its southern area. In spite of numerous cases of lof (communities) arriving at the moment Neuquen turned into a province (1955) in a cohesive shape, the further south of the Territory had little of that characteristic dynamism to show. On the contrary, those were the lands of nearly ten communities whose reconstructive processes were interrupted at some point during the territorial stage. In order to inquire in relation to that, this paper analyses the cases of two communities, binding the forms of access to land and the possibilities indigenous people had to develop their territoriality.