The Huilliche People
A pre-Columbian people of the central zone of Chile, who lived between the Toltén River and the Gulf of Reloncaví. Like all the peoples of the Araucan cultural group, the Huilliches or ‘people of the south’ spoke the Mapuche language ‘Mapudungun’. Likewise their economic activity was based principally on planting potatoes, maize and quinoa, and on rearing indigenous animals – llama, alpaca, vicuña and guanaco – from which they obtained meat and wool. Pottery, basket-weaving and wood-working provided them with utensils of all kinds. Their social and political structure was based on the "levo" or tribe, which obeyed a patri-linear system. The tribes living around the lakes of southern Chile used the "dalca", a boat made of planks sewn together with creepers, in which they travelled around the region.
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