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The Gününa küna, or sometimes, Puelche (
Mapudungun Mapuche (, Mapuche & Spanish: , or Mapudungun; from ' 'land' and ' 'speak, speech') is an Araucanian language related to Huilliche spoken in south-central Chile and west-central Argentina by the Mapuche people (from ''mapu'' 'land' and ''che ...
: ''pwelche'', "people of the east") are indigenous peoples living east of the
Andes Mountains The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the List of mountain ranges#Mountain ranges by length, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range i ...
in Chile and Southwest Argentina. They spoke the
Puelche language Puelche was a language formerly spoken by the Puelche people in the Pampas region of Argentina. The language is also known as ''Gününa Küne'', Gennaken (Guenaken), Northern Tehuelche, ''Gününa Yajich'', Ranquelche, and Pampa. Classificati ...
. The name "Puelche" was not native, but was given to them by the
Mapuche The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who sha ...
. They were annihilated by plagues and
epidemic An epidemic (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics ...
s in the late 18th century, with survivors merging into other groups such as the Mapuche, Het, and Tehuelche. The Puelche are commemorated in the scientific name of a species of lizard, ''
Liolaemus puelche ''Liolaemus puelche'' is a species of lizard in the family Iguanidae. It is found in Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Ar ...
'', which is endemic to
Mendoza Province Mendoza, officially Province of Mendoza, is a province of Argentina, in the western central part of the country in the Cuyo region. It borders San Juan to the north, La Pampa and Neuquén to the south, San Luis to the east, and the republic o ...
, Argentina.. www.reptile-database.org. Currently, there are efforts of revitalizing the language.


Sources

*
Thomas Falkner Thomas Falkner (6 October 1707 – 30 January 1784) was an English Jesuit missionary, explorer and physician, active in the Patagonia region for nearly forty years. His primary work, ''The Description of Patagonia'', was written towards the idea ...
, Description of Patagonia and the adjoining parts of South America, Pugh, Hereford, 1774.
Juan Ignatius Molina, The Geographical, Natural, and Civil History of Chili, Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, London, 1809
*Bruce G. Trigger, Wilcomb E. Washburn, Richard E. W. Adams,
The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, Vol III South America Part 2. , Cambridge University Press, 2000.


References

Mapuche groups Indigenous peoples in Argentina Indigenous peoples of the Southern Cone {{SouthAm-ethno-group-stub