The Massacre of Salsipuedes (Spanish: Masacre de Salsipuedes), also known as the Slaughter of Salsipuedes (Spanish: Matanza de Salsipuedes), was a genocidal attack carried out on 11 April 1831 by the Uruguayan Army, led by Fructuoso Rivera, as the culmination of the state's efforts to eradicate the Charrúa from Uruguay.[1][2]
The massacre took place on the riverbanks of the Great Salsipuedes Creek, whose name is a contraction of the Spanish phrase sal si puedes ("get out if you can").[3] According to official reports, 40 were killed and 300 were taken prisoner, with an uncertain number managing to escape; following the massacre, the survivors were forcibly marched to Montevideo and sold into slavery, with 4 notably being sent to a human zoo in Paris. While descendants of the Charrúa are today believed to number between 160,000 and 300,000 across Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina, the massacre decimated their communities and erased them from Uruguayan public memory; for this reason, it is popularly thought of as the event that exterminated the Charrúa as a people.
Background
At the time of first contact with Europeans in the 16th century, the Charrúa were the predominant people in the lands between the Paraná and Uruguay River, with smaller populations of Chaná and Guarani peoples residing in the area as well; conflicts with Europeans spurred their movement to the Banda Oriental, which contains the modern-day territory of Uruguay. The Charrúa predominated particularly in the north of the region (today split between Uruguay and Brazil) and lived semi-nomadically; their migration was influenced by rain, drought, and the availability of prey. Compared to the rest of South America, European settlers were relatively late to the area due to fierce indigenous resistance along with the lack of natural resources attractive to the various empires.[4] Following the establishment of the first permanent European settlements through the 17th and early 18th century, Uruguay became a center of conflict between the British, Spanish and Portuguese colonial forces as part of their struggle for dominance over the La Plata Basin. Following decades of fierce fighting between the Charrúa and the Spanish colonists, a peace treaty was signed on 22 March 1732 where the Charrúa, in exchange for recognising Spanish laws, had their laws and sovereignty recognised by the Spanish in kind.
By the of the Treaty of Montevideo, the nascent Uruguayan state had established an uncertain but effective relationship with its indigenous subjects. The Thirty-Three Orientals enjoyed fervent support among the Charrúa, who saw them as bulwarks against the Brazilian Empire that had previously displaced them. Many Charrúa (including one of the survivors sent to France) served alongside the Chaná and Guarani in José Gervasio Artigas' forces during Uruguay's struggle for independence against the Spanish and Portuguese-Brazilian empires. Some indigenous soldiers, like the Guarani Andrés Guazurary, even reached the rank of caudillo and led vital battles to secure what is today Uruguay's northeastern border.
In the years leading up to Salsipuedes, however, indigenous peoples' place in Uruguay had been put into question: although they were instrumental in securing the country's independence, the nascent Mestizaje argued that maintaining the indigenous peoples' way of life was no longer necessary for the organisation of the state, with some arguing from a Marxist perspective that occupying their lands in Northern Uruguay was necessary to uplift the social class they embodied.[5] Artigas and Rivera looked positively upon the Guarani and preferred to maintain peace with them, as they had become compatible with their view of an independent Uruguayan society (from the influence of the Jesuit missions) through their adoption of a sedentary way of life and progressive assimilation into the Mestizo communities. The Charrúa, however, were not so amenable to assimilation and were under severe pressure; in addition to the pressures of assimilation, they were harmed even further by ferocious conflict with the state and other indigenous forces alike, with Guazurary (considered by Artigas to be his indigenous political heir) clashing fiercely with the Charrúa during his military campaigns. According to historian Lincoln Maiztegui Casas, "The disappearance of the Charrúa was a gradual process that took more than 200 years and was generated from the occupation of the territory by Europeans". Through a combination of land theft and colonization, their lack of amenability to assimilation, affliction by disease, and the disruption of their nomadic way of life, their fortunes were severely affected. with few holding on to the Charrúa way of life by the early 19th century.
The remaining that did, however, were steadfastly committed and continued to move freely throughout northern Uruguay as in pre-colonial times, in spite of their increasingly violent encounters with encroaching white settlers. Because of this, the authorities increasingly saw them as an insurmountable "obstacle" to establishing what they saw as an organised society; as their way of life was an inherent disruption to their settler-colonial ambitions, the white settlers began to raise allegations of murder, rape, robbery and banditry. Preceding his assumption of the presidency, Rivera was petitioned in February 1830 by his rival Juan Antonio Lavalleja that the Charrúa, whom the latter described as "wicked people who know no restraint (...) (and could not) be left to their natural inclinations", should be confronted in order to satisfy the settlers' demands for protection.[6] Rivera, who had maintained friendly relations with the Charrúa up and still enjoyed widespread popularity for his role in the war for independence, agreed to spearhead the Campaña de Salsipuedes — The Salsipuedes campaign.
Massacre
In early 1831, Rivera summoned the leading Charrúa chiefs — Venado, Polidoro, Rondeau and Juan Pedro — and their families to a meeting on a riverbank of what is today known as the Great Salsipuedes Creek. As a cover story, Rivera had told the chiefs that the army was in need of their help to protect the border region. When the Charrúa arrived by the hundreds on 11 April 1831, one of the army generals furthered the ruse by releasing his horses as a gesture of good faith, and the chiefs reciprocated by releasing most of their horses as well. As the meeting progressed, the Charrúa became increasingly drunk and off their guard; the details of the subsequent events are uncertain and subject to dispute. According to Eduardo Acevedo Díaz, the signal to trigger the attack came when Rivera asked for Chief Venado's knife in order to chop tobacco, whereupon Venado was shot dead. In any case, the Charrúa were suddenly surrounded by 1200 soldiers under the command of Bernabé Rivera, President Rivera's nephew.
According to official historiography, 40 people were killed and 300 were taken prisoner, with a number of Charrúa managing to escape; among the soldiers, 9 were wounded and 1 was killed.[7]
Aftermath and legacy
The survivors were forcibly marched 260km to Montevideo, where they were sold into slavery.[8] The massacre was followed by two other attacks by the Queguay Grande River and the "La cueva del Tigre" passage respectively, in order to track down and eliminate the Charrúa that had either escaped or not been present.[citation needed] On 17 August, Bernabé Rivera's army ambushed a group of Charrúa in Mataojo led by the chiefs El Adivino and Juan Pedro, of which 15 were killed and 80 were taken prisoner; 18 Charrúa, including the chief Polidoro, managed to escape. On 17 June of the following year, a failed ambush at the Yacaré Cururú Creek resulted in Bernabé Rivera, along with 2 officers and 9 soldiers, being killed by a group of Charrúa that had survived the previous attacks.
Hearing of the Charrúan prisoners being put up for sale, the director of the Oriental School of Montevideo thought that the story of a nearly extinct people would spark the interest of French scientists and the public.[9] Thusly, French ex-general François Curel agreed to purchase four Charrúa to be exhibited in Paris: medicine man Senacua Sénaqué, warrior Vaimaca-Pirú Sira (who had previously served under Artigas),[10] and the young couple Laureano Tacuavé Martínez and María Micaela Guyunusa; Guyunusa was pregnant at the time.[11]
The four Charrúa disembarked with Curel on 25 February 1833, arriving in Saint-Malo on 7 May of that year before being transported to Paris, where they were exhibited as part of a human zoo.[12] On 20 September, Guyunusa gave birth to a girl biologically fathered by Sira: initially given the name María Mónica Micaëla Igualdad Libertad, her French birth certificate lists her name as Caroliné Tacouavé.[13][14] Sénaqué, Sira and Guyunusa all died within the first year of their arrival, with Guyunusa's widower Tacuavé adopting the infant girl as his own. She died the following year, surmised by historian Darío Arce Asenjo to be from the same disease that took Guyunusa.[12] The ultimate fate of Tacauvé, the last survivor of the group, is unknown; his later activities are scantly documented and no record of his death has been found, but Asenjo theorised from the few existing records that he integrated into the French lifestyle, adopting the Francophone spelling of his name and working as a medicine salesman and maker of card decks for some time before dying of sickness of old age; it is unknown if he left any descendants.[12] The sculpture Los Últimos Charrúas ("The Final Charrúans") was erected in their memory in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Regardless of the survivors' ultimate fates, it has been argued by historian Diego Bracco that the massacre represented the death blow to the indigenous nations of Uruguay at the time; to him, the massacre marked the disappearance of the Charrúa from public memory and their end as a cohesive community with an identity, territory and common historical memory.[15] The Charrúa language is today considered extinct; although the massacre is commonly thought of as having led to their complete destruction, several Charrúa communities did survive in neighbouring Argentina and Brazil after the massacre, with official numbers estimating their descendants to number between 160,000 and 300,000 in Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil.[6] Among them, many of them have publicly promoted and reclaimed their Charrúa identity: the Asociación de Descendientes de la Nación Charrúa (ADENCH, English: Association of the Descendants of the Charrúa Nation) was founded in August 1989 to conserve and promote the history, knowledge and culture of the Charrúa, and the organisation Consejo de la Nación Charrúa (CONACHA, English: Council of the Charrúa Nation) was founded in 2005 by 10 communities and organisations to advocate for the recognition and self-identification of Uruguayan indigenous peoples.[16]
In present-day Uruguay, the name of the Charrúa has acquired mythical connotations of strength, valor, pride and victory in war, especially in a sporting context. The phrase garra charrúa ("Charrúa claw/Charrúa strength") became associated with the Uruguayan national football team following their victory in the 1935 South American Championship, referring to the team's victory in the face of adversity struggles with injuries, as well as the lineup's relative youth and inexperience compared to their vastly more experienced Argentinian and Peruvian opponents.[17]
Related Research Articles
The history of Uruguay comprises different periods: the pre-Columbian time or early history, the Colonial Period (1516–1811), the Period of Nation-Building (1811–1830), and the history of Uruguay as an independent country (1830–present).
The Charrúa are an Indigenous people or Indigenous Nation of the Southern Cone in present-day Uruguay and the adjacent areas in Argentina and Brazil. They were a semi-nomadic people who sustained themselves mainly through hunting and gathering. Since resources were not permanent in every region, they would constantly be on the move. Rain, drought, and other environmental factors determined their movement. For this reason they are often classified as seasonal nomads.
Manuel Ceferino Oribe y Viana was the 2nd Constitutional president of Uruguay and founder of Uruguay's National Party, the oldest Uruguayan political party and considered one of the two Uruguayan "traditional" parties, along with the Colorado Party, which was, until the 20th century, its only political adversary.
José Fructuoso Rivera y Toscana was an Uruguayan general and patriot who fought for the liberation of Banda Oriental from Brazilian rule, thrice served as President of Uruguay and was one of the instigators of the long Uruguayan Civil War. He is also considered to be the founder of the Colorado Party, which ruled Uruguay without interruption from 1865 until 1958. He made a controversial decision to almost completely eliminate the native Charrúa during the 1831 Massacre of Salsipuedes.
Laurent Vacouabé was a young Native American from present day Uruguay. Son of Eustaquio Tacuavé and Francisca Martínez, younger brother of María Manuel Tacuavé and Apolinaria Tacuavé. It is uncertain if he was Charrúa of Guaraní and Spaniard descent or if he was Guaraní of Spanish-Charrúan descent.
Banda Oriental, or more fully Banda Oriental del Río Uruguay, was the name of the South American territories east of the Uruguay River and north of Río de la Plata that comprise the modern nation of Uruguay, the modern state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and part of the modern state of Santa Catarina, Brazil. It was the easternmost territory of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata.
Artigas Department is the northernmost department of Uruguay, located in its northwestern region. Its capital is the city of Artigas, which borders on the Brazilian city of Quaraí. Artigas Department has an area of 11,928 square kilometres (4,605 sq mi), making it the fifth largest in the country. The population is 73,378 inhabitants, according to the 2011 census.
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Minuane were one of the native nations of Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil. Their territory was along the Paraná and Uruguay Rivers. In one source, they are fully identified with the Guenoas, being actually considered the same tribe.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Uruguay:
Uruguayans are people identified with the country of Uruguay, through citizenship or descent. Uruguay is home to people of different ethnic origins. As a result, many Uruguayans do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, but with citizenship and their allegiance to Uruguay. Colloquially, primarily among other Spanish-speaking Latin American nations, Uruguayans are also referred to as "orientals [as in Easterners]".
María Micaela Guyunusa was a Minuán-Charrúa native from present day Uruguay of Güenoa descent.
Spanish settlement in Uruguay, that is the arrival of Spanish emigrants in the country known today as Uruguay, took place firstly in the period before independence from Spain and again in large numbers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This includes that a large proportion of Uruguayans are of Spanish ancestral origin.
Indigenous peoples in Uruguay or Native Uruguayans, are the peoples who have historically lived in the modern state of Uruguay. Because of genocidal colonial practices, disease and active exclusion, only a very small share of the population is aware of the country's indigenous history or has known indigenous ancestry.
Ramón de Amaya was an Argentine-Uruguayan military man and politician, who fought against the English during the British invasions of the River Plate, and who participated in the Uruguayan Civil War.
Ana Micaela Monterroso de Lavalleja was a Uruguayan woman, the wife of Juan Antonio Lavalleja, who traveled with him and participated in the politics of the world around her. Whether or not Lavalleja was present in the household, Monterroso ran the family's affairs and would actively aid the resistance to the Portuguese and the government of Fructuoso Rivera. She and Lavalleja had ten children, some of whom died young. She, along with Melchora Cuenca and Cayetana Leguizamón, represent the involvement of women in the early history of modern Uruguay.
The Charruan playing cards were a deck of cards made of pieces of leather with paintings, probably created by Tacuabé. These are characterized by being a cultural loan from the Spanish deck to which distinct Charruan elements were added.
The place Potreros de Arerunguá or simply Arerunguá is located in the center and north of Uruguay on the homonymous stream, the Arroyo Arerunguá. It extends over territories that are currently part of the departments of Salto and Tacuarembó.
The Council of the Charrúa Nation is a non-profit organization based in Uruguay. It is an umbrella organization, conceived to rescue, preserve and disseminate the identity and culture of the descendants of the Charrúa native indians, as well as to contribute to the construction of the national identity and to vindicate indigenous ancestors. It comprises several groups, among others: Basquadé Inchalá, Grupo Sepé, Guyunusa, Grupo Berá, Grupo Pirí. Another organization, the Association of Descendants of the Charrúa Nation, was among the founding members, but they quit in 2015, citing irreconcilable differences.
↑ "Uruguay". U.S. Department of State. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
↑ Klein, Fernando (January 2007). "El Destino de Los Indigenas en Uruguay"[The Fate of the Indigenous Peoples in Uruguay](PDF). Revista Crítica de Ciencias Sociales y Jurídicas. 15 (1). Archived from the original(PDF) on 2013-06-12. Retrieved 2024-03-07– via Pendiente de Migración.
1 2 Alayón, Wilfredo (28 March 2011). "Uruguay and the memory of the Charrúa tribe". The Prisma. Retrieved 20 Dec 2011.
↑ Klein, Fernando (January 2007). "El Destino de Los Indigenas en Uruguay"[The Fate of the Indigenous Peoples in Uruguay](PDF). Revista Crítica de Ciencias Sociales y Jurídicas. 15 (1). Archived from the original(PDF) on 2013-06-12. Retrieved 2024-03-07– via Pendiente de Migración.
↑ Charrua Hapkido y Tkd Paysandu (May 21, 2012). "El Parto de María Micaëla Guyunusa". chancharrua.wordpress.com (in Spanish). Charrúas del Uruguay, La nación Charrúa. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
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