Introduction: indigenous presence and legislation in Argentina

Abstract

This chapter provides general information and background about indigenous people presence in Argentina and about the main valid laws about this issue. Argentina is located in the southern portion of the American continent, and its territory consists of six main, large regions: Patagonia in the South; the Pampas in the Center; Cuyo, the western Andean mountains; the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA) and the Greater Buenos Aires (GBA); and the Northwestern and Northeastern regions. All these areas are currently the home place of more than 40 indigenous peoples, amounting to approximately one million inhabitants (out of a total population of 45 million people in Argentina). In demographic terms, the largest groups are the Mapuche people (with a population of over 200,000), followed by the Toba (Qom) and the Guaraní (with less than 200,000 and more than 100,000), and finally, the Diaguita, Kolla, Quechua and Wichí groups, encompassing a population between 50,000 and 100,000 (INDEC in 2010 National Population and Housing Census—bicentenary census. Indigenous peoples, metropolitan region. Series D. Number 6. Buenos Aires, 2015). Therefore, 70% of Argentina’s indigenous population is concentrated in seven major groups, while the remaining 30% is fragmented into more than 30 groups of lower demographic significance.