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The Gününa küna, or sometimes, Puelche ( Mapudungun: ''pwelche'', "people of the east") are indigenous peoples living east of the Andes Mountains in Chile and Southwest Argentina. They spoke the Puelche language. The name "Puelche" was not native, but was given to them by the 
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.
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 s ...
. They were annihilated by plagues and epidemic
An epidemic (from 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 of infectious ...
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