Archives, territories and indigenous works in the Departments of Los Lagos and Aluminé (1920-1940)

Abstract

The objectives of this article aim to recount the conflict over access to land and/or decent working conditions in post-conquest contexts—observing, comparing, and analyzing different strategies of indigenous agency, private action, and the role of the State as a “mediating entity” in the region of the Department of Los Lagos and Alumine (Neuquén province) in the first decades of the 20th century. Although each process possesses specific dynamics, the central actors are indigenous families who, decades ago, were dispossessed of their territories in the context of the military advance of the Argentine State. In this regard, we observe the common historical and current problems related to access to land and/or decent labor conditions. This work is based on documentation from the territorial period: from the Neuquén Land and Colonies Directorate; from the Catastro archive and from the Provincial Archive System, all from the province of Neuquén.