Futahuillimapu or Fütawillimapu is a traditional territory of the

Huilliche people The Huilliche , Huiliche or Huilliche-Mapuche are the southern partiality of the Mapuche macroethnic group of Chile. Located in the Zona Sur, they inhabit both Futahuillimapu ("great land of the south") and, as the Cunco subgroup, the north hal ...

. Futahuillimapu spans the land between

Bueno River Bueno River (Spanish: ''Río Bueno'') is a river in southern Chile. It originates in Ranco Lake and like most of Chile rivers it drains into the Pacific Ocean at the southern boundary of the Valdivian Coastal Reserve. Its lower flow forms the bo ...

and

Reloncaví Sound Reloncaví Sound or ''Seno de Reloncaví'' is a body of water immediately south of Puerto Montt, a port city in the Los Lagos Region of Chile. It is the place where the Chilean Central Valley meets the Pacific Ocean. The Calbuco Archipelago com ...

. Futahuillimapu means "great land of the south." Back in the 18th century when this territory was free of foreign rule its western part, corresponding to the

Chilean Coast Range The Chilean Coastal Range ( es, Cordillera de la Costa) is a mountain range that runs from north to south along the Pacific coast of South America parallel to the Andean Mountains, extending from Morro de Arica in the north to Taitao Peninsula, ...

and its foothills was inhabited by so-called

Cuncos Cuncos or Juncos is a poorly known subgroup of Huilliche people native to coastal areas of southern Chile and the nearby inland. Mostly a historic term, Cuncos are chiefly known for their long-running conflict with the Spanish during the colonia ...

while proper Huilliches lived in the flatlands of the eastern portion corresponding to the Central Valley. After the destruction of Osorno in 1602 Futahuillimapu and the whole area between

Valdivia Valdivia (; Mapuche: Ainil) is a city and commune in southern Chile, administered by the Municipality of Valdivia. The city is named after its founder Pedro de Valdivia and is located at the confluence of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia, and Cau-Cau R ...

and the settlements of

Calbuco Calbuco is a city and commune in southern Chile administered by the Municipality of Calbuco. Administratively Calbuco belongs to the Llanquihue Province of Los Lagos Region. The origin of the city was the Spanish Fort Calbuco founded in 1603, an ...

and

Carelmapu Carelmapu (lit. from Mapudungun "Green Land") is a port and town ( es, pueblo) at the western end of Chacao Channel, southern Chile. Carelmapu was established by the Spanish in 1602 as San Antonio Ribera de Carelmapu following the Destruction of ...

remained independent indigenous territory closed to the Spanish. The Spanish had thus little information on this territory and had to rely on hearsay. This lack of concrete knowledge of the territory fueled speculations about the

mythical Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrati ...

City of the Caesars The City of the Caesars (Spanish Ciudad de los Césares), also variously known as ''City of Patagonia'', ''the Wandering City'', ''Trapalanda'' or ''Trapananda'', ''Lin Lin'' or ''Elelín'', is a mythical city of South America. It was supposedly ...

. The territory was ravaged by a Spanish militia in 1792. The next year the Spanish-Huilliche

Parliament of Las Canoas The Parliament of Las Canoas ( es, Parlamento de Las Canoas) was a diplomatic meeting between Mapuche-Huilliches and Spanish authorities in 1793 held at the confluence of Rahue River and Damas River near what is today the city of Osorno. The par ...

was held. In this official meeting local chiefs had to accept the incorporation of Futahuillimapu to the

Spanish Empire The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...

and allow the Spanish to reestablish the city of Osorno. Soon after the reestablishment of Osorno nearby Huilliche lands begun to be coveted by the new settlers whose purchase of land was only occasionally objected by local governor

Juan Mackenna Brigadier Juan Mackenna (26 October 1771 – 21 November 1814) was an Irish-born, Chilean military officer and hero of the Chilean War of Independence. He is considered to have been the creator of the Corps of Military Engineers of the Chilean ...

. In the mid-19th century these settlers were joined by new ones from Germany whom the Huilliche called ''leupe lonko'' (blond heads). Loss of lands by the Huilliche in the 19th century was often related to scams,

language barrier A language barrier is a figurative phrase used primarily to refer to linguistic barriers to communication, i.e. the difficulties in communication experienced by people or groups originally speaking different languages, or even dialects in some ...

s, and the decline of legal framework, such as the

comisario de naciones In colonial and early republican Chile comisario de naciones was a government official that mediated between indigenous and the Spanish Crown, later authorities of the Republic of Chile replaced the Spanish in the mediation chain. The comisario de ...

, that protected indigenous interest. As result of Chilean and German settlers settling around

in the 19th century, Huilliches living in the Central Valley migrated to the coastal region of Osorno.

References

{{coord missing, Chile Geography of Los Lagos Region History of Los Lagos Region Historical regions Huilliche Mapuche regions