 Flag of the Wichí people | |
 | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 55,734[1][2] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Argentina, Bolivia | |
| Argentina | 50,419 (2010)[2] |
| Bolivia | 5,315[1] |
| Languages | |
| Wichí languages (Wichí Lhamtés Vejoz,Wichí Lhamtés Güisnay,Wichí Lhamtés Nocten),Spanish | |
| Religion | |
| Traditional tribal religion | |
TheWichí are an indigenous people ofSouth America. They comprise a large group of tribes inhabiting the headwaters of theBermejo andPilcomayo rivers inArgentina andBolivia.
This ethnic group was referred to by English settlers asMataco, a term that is still widely used. Theetymology of this term is obscure; however, several sources note that the Wichí consider itderogatory.[3] Among the Wichí, afolk etymology relates the term to the Spanish verbmatar ("to kill").[4]
Their preferred self-designation is Wichí, meaning "people" (Wichí Lhamtés Güisnay pronunciation:[wiˈkʲi]), and their language is known asWichí Lhamtés ([wikʲil̥amˈtes]).
In some areas ofBolivia, there is a pronunciation variant[wikˠiʡ], and the group refers to themselves asWeenhayek Wichí, translated by Alvarsson (1988) as "the different people" (plural:Weenhayey). According to Weenhayey informants interviewed by Alvarsson, the original name wasOlhamelh ([oɬameɬ]), meaning simply "us."
Subgroups within the Wichí have been identified and referred to by different names in the literature:Nocten orOctenay in Bolivia;Véjos, more properlyWejwus orWehwos, for the western subgroup(s); andGüisnay for the eastern subgroups in Argentina. The latter corresponds toTewoq-lhelej, meaning "the river people."
At present, various Wichí groups can be found in Argentina and Bolivia, distributed as follows:
Argentina:
Bolivia:
In Bolivia, Wichí communities are found in Gran Chaco Province, Tarija Department, along thePilcomayo River. Fourteen communities are located in the area extending from the town of Villa Montes to D'Orbigny, near the Argentine border.
Ethnologue reports:
Versions of Wichí are the most widely spoken languages of theMatacoan language family. The Wichí language comprises three main varieties:
The total number of speakers can only be estimated, as no fully reliable figures exist. According to the ArgentineNational Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC), there are 36,135 speakers in Argentina alone. In Rosario,Argentina's third-largest city, there is a community of approximately 10,000 Wichí people, all fluent in the language, including some native speakers. Multiplebilingual primary schools serve this community.
In Bolivia, Alvarsson estimated between 1,700 and 2,000 speakers in 1988; a census later reported 1,912 speakers, while Diez Astete and Riester (1996) estimated between 2,300 and 2,600 Weenhayek living in sixteen communities.
According to Najlis (1968) and Gordon (2005), three maindialects can be distinguished within Wichí: southwestern or Vejós (Wehwós), northeastern or Güisnay (Weenhayek), and northwestern or Nocten (Oktenay). Tovar (1981) and other authors identify only two dialects (northeastern and southwestern), whereas Braunstein (1992–1993) describes eleven ethnical subgroups.
The Wichí language is predominantlysuffixing andpolysynthetic; verbal words can contain between two and fifteen morphemes. It distinguishes between alienable and inalienablepossession. The phonological inventory is extensive, including simple,glottalized, andaspiratedstops andsonorants. The number ofvowels varies by dialect (five or six).
The Anglican Church, particularly Bishop David Leake and his father, missionary Alfred Leake, played a significant role in developing a written form of the Wichí language to record stories and foundational myths. Many Wichí people are Christian, and Bishop Leake, with the support of the Bible Society, translated the entire Old and New Testaments into Wichí, enabling the community to read and hear the scriptures in their own language.
Much of what is known about the history of the Wichí comes from accounts byJesuit andFranciscanmissionaries in the 17th and 18th centuries. The first mission was established in 1690 but was unsuccessful. In 1771, the Franciscan Mission of Zenta received a more favorable reception; however, with the decline of Spanish power, these missions eventually fell into decay.
The Anglican Church has been closely involved with the Wichí since the early 20th century. There are currently over 140 churches in the region, which are attended almost exclusively by indigenous families. Many priests of the Anglican Church in northern Argentina are from indigenous communities, and three bishops of the Anglican Diocese of Northern Argentina have been indigenous, including members of the Wichí (see Diocese of Northern Argentina; Anglican Indigenous Network).
The Wichí territory has shifted since the 18th century, when the first precise records of their existence and location were documented. In the Pilcomayo River area, their neighbors were theToba, and their lands along the Bermejo River extended from the present-day town ofEmbarcación to an area north of the current town of Castelli, in Chaco Province.
The Anglican Diocese of Northern Argentina has advocated for Wichí land rights for over a century, mediating between the provincial governments of Formosa and Salta in efforts to secure indigenous land claims. For more than fifty years, the Anglican Church privately purchased land to allow indigenous communities to live there, as the national government had long refused to acknowledge Wichí land or human rights. In February 2020, theInter-American Court of Human Rights ruled against the Argentine government in a landmark case, ordering reparations, restitution of land, and the restoration of fishing rights to indigenous communities. ASOCIANA, an ecological charity affiliated with the Anglican Church, has played a significant role in this process and in documenting ecological crimes committed by private corporations and government groups.
According to Father Alejandro Corrado, a Franciscan missionary in Tarija, the Wichí were traditionallynomadic, living in light structures scattered throughout the forest. Corrado wrote that their diet relied primarily on fish andalgarroba (the fruit of thealgarrobo tree, commonly identified withProsopis alba or South Americanmesquite), as well ashoney-locust. He described them as eating "anything that was notpoisonous, evenrats andgrasshoppers." Fromalgarroba, they reportedly prepared an intoxicating beverage, likelyaloja, made byfermenting the sugary paste (patay) found inside the fruit. The ripening ofalgarroba was marked by a ceremonial celebration.
Corrado also noted that among the Wichí, "everything is in common." There was a clear division of labor: men primarily engaged infishing and occasionalhunting with bows or clubs, while women carried out most other tasks.
Regardingspiritual beliefs, Corrado reported that Wichí shamans, ormedicine men, foughtdisease "with singing and rattles," and that the Wichí believed in both a good spirit and an evil spirit, with thesouls of the deceasedreincarnating in animals. There is also evidence of the use of theentheogenAnadenanthera colubrina by Wichí shamans in Argentina.[8]
ThePentecostal Church ofSweden began working among the Wichí community in the early 20th century, leading to aChristian majority among the Weenhayek population. The absence of concepts of individual possession and ownership within the community facilitated this conversion; everything was traditionally held in common, aligning with descriptions of the early Christian church. Other factors helped contextualize thegospel, such as the Weenhayek's identity as fishermen on thePilcomayo River, similar to several disciples in theBible. These cultural connections have allowed the Weenhayek to maintain their unique identity and traditions despite adopting Christianity.
The Wichí have traditionally depended on hunting, fishing, and small-scale agriculture for their subsistence. Since the beginning of the 20th century, significant portions of their ancestral lands have been taken over by outsiders. Areas that were oncegrasslands have undergonedesertification as a result ofdeforestation,cattle ranching, and, more recently, the introduction of non-native crops such assoybeans. A 1998 study by a graduate student fromClark University (Worcester, MA), based onsatellite imagery, showed that between 1984 and 1996, 20% of the forest was lost.
The Wichí were also affected by the economicrecession from 1999 to 2002. However, their economic self-sufficiency, physical isolation, and the general lack of governmental recognition mitigated the impact. The crisis primarily resulted in price increases for goods they do not produce themselves (such as sugar and red meat, which they often substitute with wild honey and fish) and disruptions in the supply of medicines and healthcare services.
For many years, the Wichí have struggled to obtain legal title to their ancestral lands, which have been repeatedly seized and fenced off by non-Indigenous cattle ranchers and farmers. Their land claims center on two large public land areas in eastern Salta Province, known asLote 55 (approximately 2,800 km²) andLote 14. While their rights to these lands have been recognized by law, the Salta provincial government has taken no practical enforcement measures.
In early 2004, the government of Salta decided to revoke the protected status of theGeneral Pizarro Natural Reserve, an area of 250 km² in Anta Department inhabited by approximately 100 Wichí people, and to sell part of the land to two private companies, Everest SA and Initium Aferro SA, for deforestation andsoybean cultivation. Following months of protests, legal challenges, and a campaign supported byGreenpeace, on 29 September 2005 — after the issue was covered on a popular television program — a group of Argentine artists, actors, musicians, models, environmental organizations, and Wichí representatives arranged a meeting with Chief of Cabinet Alberto Fernández, Director of the National Parks Administration Héctor Espina, and PresidentNéstor Kirchner. The national government promised to discuss the matter with Salta Governor Juan Carlos Romero.
On 14 October 2005, the National Parks Administration and the government of Salta signed an agreement to create a new national protected area in General Pizarro. Of the approximately 213 km² included in the new reserve, the Wichí were granted use rights over 22 km² and ownership of 8 km².
El Chaco, where many Wichí also live, is the largest remaining subtropical dry broadleaf forest in the world. Currently, the Wichí and other Indigenous groups face the threat of losing their land and livelihoods to expandingagribusinesses operations. Soy and cotton farmers have cleared vast areas of forest to increase cultivation. The Chaco forest is being deforested at a rate six times faster than that of the Amazon rainforest, with logging companies among the primary profiteers. In addition, soy cultivation has further accelerated deforestation and led to the use of large quantities of fertilizers and pesticides, which contaminate the water sources on which Indigenous communities depend.
Since 2008, many Indigenous people have organized through theMovimiento Nacional Campesino Indígena (National Movement of Indigenous Peasants) to fight for legal recognition of their land rights.[9]
The Wichí, like otherhunter-gatherer peoples, have traditionally been semi-nomadic. Even today, despite significant transculturation, a considerable number ofmontaraces (nomadic) communities or clans continue this way of life. Each Wichí village has its own territory, though several communities often share overlapping areas. Each community consists of one or more clans.
Wichí society ismatrilocal; individuals belong to their mothers' clans, and uponmarriage, men move to their wives' villages. Individuals and families from neighboring peoples—such as the Iyojwaja (Chorote),Nivaklé, Qomlek (Toba), and Tapy'y (Tapieté)—often live among the Wichí, sometimes marrying into their society.
The Wichí typically build small mud houses with roofs made of leaves and branches, structures that are well adapted to the high summer temperatures, which can reach up to 50 °C (120 °F). During the dry season (winter), they rely on fishing in the Bermejo and Pilcomayo rivers. In summer, they cultivate crops such ascorn,pumpkins, beans, andwatermelons.
Throughout the year, the Wichí hunt various animals, includingdeer (such asMazama goauzoubira andMazama americana),armadillos (Dasypus,Tolypeutes, andEuphractus),rabbits (Sylvilagus brasiliensis),iguanas, andpeccaries (Tayassu albirostris andTayassu tajacu). They also gather wildhoney and collect fruits.
For centuries, the Wichí have used the strong fibers ofchaguar (Bromelia serra,Bromelia hieronymi) toweave nets, bags, and other textile items; in some communities, the sale of chaguar handicrafts represents a significant part of the local economy.
The most popular traditional game among the Wichí is a team sport known asyaj ha'lä, which resembleslacrosse. Matches usually last from dawn to dusk without interruption and are organized between clans. While the original cultural significance of the game has been lost, it remains a focus of intensegambling, with rival clans betting animals, clothing, seeds, and horses on the outcome.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Mataco Indians".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
