Indigenous peoples in Chile





Indigenous peoples in Chile or Native Chileans, are Chileans who have predominant or total Amerindian or Rapa Nui ancestry. According to the 2024 census, 2,105,863 people declare having Indigenous origins, representing 11.5% of the total population. Most Chileans are of partially Indigenous descent; however, Indigenous identification and its legal ramifications are typically reserved to those who self-identify with and are accepted within one or more Indigenous groups.
Human presence in Chilean territory can be documented from at least 14,500 BCE, based on archaeological remains found at Monte Verde in the southern part of the country. From that time onward, diverse societies inhabited the territory during the pre-Columbian period, and it is estimated that more than one million people lived in the area prior to the Spanish conquest of Chile.
European colonization had a devastating impact on the Indigenous population, which experienced a drastic decline due to introduced diseases, wars, forced labor, and harsh living conditions. In addition, many survivors were compelled to abandon their cultures and assimilate into the dominant society. Some peoples disappeared entirely.
From the 19th century onward, the Chilean state implemented policies that deepened Indigenous dispossession, such as the Occupation of Araucanía and the creation of Indigenous reservations, which severely restricted access to ancestral lands. The Informe de Verdad Histórica y Nuevo Trato acknowledged this historical debt and recommended reparative measures, including the recognition of collective rights over land and natural resources, as well as Indigenous political participation.
Despite this historical background, Indigenous peoples maintain a significant presence in Chile. Since 1993, the state has officially recognized 11 Indigenous peoples. The Mapuche, with their traditional lands in south-central Chile, account for approximately 80% of the total Indigenous population. There are also small populations of Aymara, Quechua, Atacameño, Qulla, Diaguita, Yahgan, Rapa Nui and Kawésqar people in other parts of the country, as well as many other groups such as Caucahue, Chango, Picunche, Chono, Tehuelche, Cunco and Selkʼnam.
Indigenous peoples in Chile face various forms of racial and social discrimination, as well as higher rates of poverty, unemployment, and illiteracy compared with the rest of the population. Their demands include constitutional recognition, respect for territorial rights, and progress toward forms of autonomy and self-determination.

History

Before the Spanish arrived in the mid 16th century, Chile was home to the southernmost portion of the Inca Empire. The Inca first expanded into Chile under Túpac Inca Yupanqui who ruled from 1471 to 1493. At its peak, the empire's southern border was the Maule River in central Chile. Shortly thereafter, Spanish conquistadors led by Francisco Pizarro started to make contact with Inca in Peru in the 1530s. The combination of European diseases and internal conflicts over succession severely weakened the strength and size of the empire, which ultimately collapsed during Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532.
While the Inca Empire fell, the Mapuche people were never formally defeated by Spanish conquistadors. Instead, this Indigenous population maintained a tense independence from Spain throughout the colonial period. There were several small skirmishes throughout the 1500s and in 1553 a Mapuche attack killed the regional Spanish governor. The conflict between the Mapuche and the Spanish culminated in the Arauco War which ultimately ended with official recognition for the Mapuche people and their territory. The Mapuche were one of the few Indigenous groups in Latin America who were formally recognized as possessing territory by the Spanish. Because of this recognition, the Mapuche did not align with Chilean nationalists during the Chilean War of Independence. Instead they chose to side with the Spanish, because the imperial power's legal recognition of the Mapuche tribe made them more of a known quantity than the Chilean rebels.
File:Huaraman y su hermano y Juan Soldado, 1863.jpg|thumb|The Mapuche Cacique Juan Huaraman in the La Moneda Palace in 1863.
After the war, the newly-formed Chilean government forced the Mapuche onto reservations approximately 1/20th the size of the area they had previously occupied. Much of their former land was further divided up and sold, including to extractive industries such as forestry and hydropower.
Although Indigenous Chileans were not allies of Chilean independence fighters, by the mid-19th century, Chilean school curriculum included depictions of Indigenous warriors that claimed they were central to the development of the Chilean identity. Even so, those Indigenous groups were still excluded from any participation in political life, making Indigenous representation purely symbolic.

The Indigenous Law

Since the fall of the Pinochet regime in 1990 and subsequent return to democracy, the Chilean government has revisited Indigenous peoples' role in Chilean society. President Patricio Aylwin Azócar's Concertación government established a Comisión Especial de Pueblos indígenas. This commission's report provided the intellectual framework of the 1993 "Indigenous Law" or Law Nº 19.253.
The Indigenous Law established the National Corporation for Indigenous Development, which included directly elected Indigenous representatives, advised and directed government programs to assist the economic development of Indigenous people. Part of that cultural recognition included legalizing the Mapudungun language and providing a bilingual education in schools with Indigenous populations. The Indigenous Law recognized in particular the Mapuche people, victims of the Occupation of the Araucanía from 1861 to 1883, as an inherent part of the Chilean nation. Other Indigenous people officially recognized included Aymara, Atacameña, Colla, Quechua, Rapa-Nui, Yahgan, Kawésqar, Diaguita, Chango and Selkʼnam .
Chile is one of the twenty countries to have signed and ratified the only binding international law concerning Indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989. It was adopted in 1989 as the International Labour Organization Convention 169. Chile ratified the convention in 2008. In November 2009, a court decision in Chile, considered to be a landmark in Indigenous rights concerns, made use of the ILO convention 169. The Supreme Court decision on Aymara water rights upholds rulings by both the Pozo Almonte tribunal and the Iquique Court of Appeals, and marks the first judicial application of ILO Convention 169 in Chile.

Constitutional recognition

Despite the benefits established by Indigenous Law, it still has its limitations, spurring the emergence of organized Mapuche movements for more direct constitutional recognition. In the 1990s, the Aukin Ngulam Wallmapu or "Council of All Lands" movement began the fight towards constitutional recognition and self-determination. Recognition of plurinational status in Chile would enshrine the Indigenous population as its own group deserving of political representation, autonomy, and territorial protection.
As a result of Indigenous mobilization and protest, Mapuche organizers encouraged constitutional reform on the national stage. In 2007, Chilean President Bachelet indicated the Indigenous constitutional reform as a "high urgency act". Despite Bachelet's endorsement, the reform was relabeled as a "low urgency act", delaying the procedure of Indigenous constitutional inclusion.
The rejected constitutional proposals would have safeguarded environmental protections, established gender parity, and extended access to education for the Mapuche people, among a host of other social and democratic provisions.
The Indigenous fight for independence and more direct recognition remains relevant today. Recent protests provide Indigenous activists an opportunity to advocate for amending the constitution to include Indigenous rights. In October 2019, there were a series of protests in Santiago, over the increased fare rates for the transportation system. These protests led to debates and discussions over the privatized Chilean social benefits system, and a call to alter the constitution to increase the efficacy of the social welfare system.
These protests culminated in a constitutional draft that would have included constitutional recognition. While in 2020, 78% of Chilean citizens voted in favor of rewriting the constitution, in the 2022 Chilean national plebiscite, 62% of Chilean voters rejected this proposal. Across the border, Indigenous people in Bolivia have constitutional recognition. This recognition respects the identities and rights of many of the same Indigenous groups that live in Chile. Still, Chile remains the only Latin American country that has yet to constitutionally recognize Indigenous populations. The lack of reform is a result of the deep rooted inequality within the Chilean government, stemming from Pinochet-era policies that favor urban elites over environmental and Indigenous issues. Looking forward, the Chilean Congress has granted approval for a new Constitutional process, which will draft another potential Constitution.

Demographics

Historical figures

Due to the absence of historical records, it is difficult to estimate the population living in what is now Chile prior to Spanish colonization. It is generally suggested that the Indigenous population numbered around one million inhabitants, although estimates range from 450,000 to 1,500,000 people. During the colonial period, the administration of the Captaincy General of Chile maintained various population records, which have helped historians produce estimates of the country's population and its division among the principal social castes of the time. The philologist Ángel Rosenblat produced estimates indicating that the colonial territory maintained a relatively stable population of around 600,000 inhabitants; however, the Indigenous share of that population declined from 94% around 1570 to 58% by 1800.
Following independence, censuses became regular from the early years of the Chilean state. However, Indigenous populations were not systematically recorded. In the late 19th century, so-called censos de indios were conducted to count Indigenous populations, but these were restricted exclusively to the Araucanía region and therefore excluded non-Mapuche Indigenous peoples. In 1875, between 50,000 and 60,000 Indigenous people were counted who were described as maintaining their culture "without immediate subjection to the authorities of the country". This group included "Araucanian tribes, as well as the Chonos, Patagonians, and Fuegians."
The 1907 census was the first regular census to include this category, although it was applied only in the provinces between Arauco and Llanquihue. On that occasion, 101,118 Indigenous people were recorded, representing 3.12% of the total population of the country. In the 1930 census, only Mapuche people living in Indigenous reservations were counted, totaling 98,703 individuals. The 1952 census was the first to apply this criterion nationwide and the first to use self-identification as an Indigenous person; however, it only collected information on the Mapuche people.
The demographic counting of Indigenous peoples was resumed in the 1992 census, which for the first time included peoples other than the Mapuche, specifically the Aymara and Rapa Nui. In the 2002 census, statistical distinctions were made among the eight Indigenous peoples officially recognized at the time. In the subsequent 2012 census, the Diaguita people officially recognized in May 2008 were incorporated, and respondents were also allowed to identify as belonging to otros pueblos.
According to the 2024 census there are the following Indigenous groups:
Indigenous groupTotal population
Mapuche1,623,073
Aymara178,637
Diaguita153,231
Quechua46,519
Atacameño or Lickanantay36,221
Colla21,913
Chango11,795
Rapa Nui6,659
Kawésqar2,153
Selk'nam1,392
Yagán1,244
Others20,631
Undeclared2,395
Total2,105,863