https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quilmes_people#/media/File:Ruinas_Quilmes.jpg
Ruins of the Quilmes civilization, Tucumán Province.
The Quilmes people, also known as Kilmes, were an indigenous tribe of the Diaguita group settled in the western subandean valleys of today’s Tucumán province, in northwestern Argentina. They fiercely resisted the Inca invasions of the 15th century, and continued to resist the Spaniards for 130 years, until being defeated in 1667. Spanish invaders relocated the last 2,000 survivors to a reservation (reducción) 20 km south of Buenos Aires. This 1,500 km journey was made by foot, causing hundreds of Quilmes to die in the process. By 1810, the reservation was abandoned as a result of its having become a ghost town. The survivors ultimately settled in what is now the city of Quilmes.
The Quilmes Indians were one of the fiercest cultures which resisted the Incas but eventually fell to the Spaniards. Today, there are only a few Quilmes left in Tucumán Province.
Quilmes ruins
On the way to Cafayate, 182 km from San Miguel de Tucumán, the Ruins of Quilmes may be seen; this is a fortified citadel which was raised by the Quilmes Indians. One of the most important archaeological locations in Argentina, the ruins were discovered by ethnographer and historian Samuel Lafone Quevedo in 1888 and restored in 1978. As of 2007, this archaeological site is in private hands, and has a private hotel on its territory.
Population
Population at the beginning of the second half of the 17th century, is estimated in about 2,000 families, approximately 10,000 persons.[citation needed] When the Calchaquí Wars ended survived about 2,000 people (1665), which were taken prisoners and deported to a reservation located near Buenos Aires.[1] But to the reservation just arrived only 200 families (about 1,000 people).[2] In 1726, there were 141 people. William Beresford found a ghost town when he visited the reservation during the first British invasion of the River Plate in 1806.[1] According to the last parish priest of the reserve, the last natives died in the late 18th century.[3] The population was decimated by the high rate of infant mortality and epidemics.[1] The government officially declared the ethnic group extinct on February 12, 1812 (but admitting that there are mestizo families)[4] and the reservation was finally closed on August 14, 1812.[5]
Eponyms
A species of lizard, Liolaemus quilmes, which is endemic to Argentina, is named in honor of the Quilmes People.[6] There is also a dinosaur called Quilmesaurus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quilmes_people
~ ~ ~
Ciudad Sagrada de Quilmes
The ruins of Quilmes, in the province of Tucumán, are one of the largest archaeological sites in Argentina and a sacred place for the indigenous people after whom the site is named. Great historical symbolism stems from the fact that the Spanish conquerors were not able to defeat this last bastion of resistance until 130 years after their invasion (1535) of the northwest of what is now Argentina. After their defeat, the Quilmes were deported in 1665, part of them to the Rio de la Plata, to an area where the city that bears their name was later created - now part of Greater Buenos Aires.
Only about 400 individuals survived the 1,400 km death march. An unknown number of the Quilmes were able to escape from the Spaniards and remain in their native region, where they had to hide their identity for a long time. (more below)
The settlement at the foot and on the slopes of the 2300 m high Alto del Rey was probably founded in the 10th century. The soil was fertile, there was sufficient water and from its strategically favorable position a central section of the trade routes through the valley of the river Santa María could be controlled. Fortifications and protective walls made it possible to well defend the upper part of the city in case of conflicts with neighbors. But also the Quilmes had to submit to the Tawantinsuyu (Inca Empire) when it expanded far to the south in the 15th century.
The Quilmes had achieved a high degree of social and economic organization. They laid out terraced fields reinforced with walls (pircas), which they irrigated through ditches and channels. For this purpose, they dammed mountain streams and rivers, the largest dam being 17 meters long. They also raised livestock, grazed animals, hunted game and maintained extensive exchange relations. In addition to pottery for everyday use, they made larger funerary urns. Bronze jewelry objects testify to their knowledge of metallurgy.
More:
https://universes.art/en/art-destinations/argentina/northwest/quilmes
~ ~ ~
Amnesty International alert:
UA: 282/09 Index: AMR 13/001/2009 Argentina Date: 16 October 2009
URGENT ACTION
INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY FACE ILLEGAL EVICTION
A landowner attempting to drive an Indigenous community off their ancestral land in northwestern Argentina have attacked them, leaving one man shot dead and four others wounded.
A local landowner came to the Indigenous community of Los Chuschagasta in Tucumán Province, on 12 October,
with two other men, whom the community recognised as former police officers. The men asked for the leader of the
community (el cacique). They said they were the owners of the land, and told the people of Los Chuschagasta
(around 20 of the community's 300 people were present) to get out. Other members of the community approached
and asked the men to leave; the three men opened fire, killing 68-year-old Javier Chocobar and wounding three
other men. The gunmen then got into a car and drove off, shooting from the windows: they wounded one other man.
Community members threw stones at them. The landowner and the two gunmen were arrested shortly afterwards.
Ten days earlier, the landowner had gone onto the community's land and built a prefabricated house there. Members
of the community have been blocking the road leading to the land since then.
Members of the community, who belong to the Diaguita Indigenous group, are seeking recognition of their ancestral
land and the effective application of a 2006 law that prohibits the eviction of Indigenous people from their land
before November 2010, while Indigenous People’s land ownership throughout Argentina is reviewed and registered.
Despite this law (Emergency Act No. 26.160), which was passed by the National Congress in November 2006,
landowners have continued threatening members of the Diaguita Indigenous community with forcible removal from
their ancestral lands, whose natural resources the landowners want to exploit.
More:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/amr130012009en.pdf
= new reply since forum marked as read
