Galletué Lake, also spelled as Gualletué Lake, is located in the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

of the

La Araucanía Region LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Ange ...

of southern

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. It is surrounded by mountains on three sides. Issuing from the lake on its eastern side is one of the two sources of the

Biobío River The Biobío River (also known as Bío Bío or Bio-Bio) is the second largest river in Chile. It originates at Icalma and Galletué lakes in the Andes and flows to the Gulf of Arauco (in Spanish) on the Pacific Ocean. The major tributaries of ...

, the other being nearby Icalma Lake. The lake is in the

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecological and geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and c ...

of the

Valdivian Temperate Rain Forest The Valdivian temperate forests (NT0404) is an ecoregion on the west coast of southern South America, in Chile and Argentina. It is part of the Neotropical realm. The forests are named after the city of Valdivia. The Valdivian temperate rainfores ...

. The monkey-puzzle tree (''

Araucaria araucana ''Araucaria araucana'', commonly called the monkey puzzle tree, monkey tail tree, pewen, pehuen pine or piñonero, is an evergreen tree belonging to the family Araucariaceae and growing to a trunk diameter of and a height of . It is native to ...

'') locally called "pehuen" is the most distinctive of the tree species in the forest.

Quinquén Community

The drainage area upstream from Galletué Lake is called the Quinquén Valley. About east of Lake Galletué the Quinquèn river combines with the Zamueco River to form the Ñirecco River which flows into Galletué Lake. The

Pehuenche Pehuenche (or Pewenche) are an Indigenous people of South America. They live in the Andes, primarily in present-day south central Chile and adjacent Argentina. Their name derives from their dependence for food on the seeds of the ''Araucaria ar ...

(or Pewenche) people have lived in this valley for several hundred years, but came under the control of the government of Chile during the 1880-1883 "Mountain Campaign" to pacify and establish Chilean rule over the

Mapuche The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging e ...

and other indigenous people. In the early 1900s, a white rancher paid the Pehuenche to graze his cattle in the valley during summer, but he later claimed that he owned the land. Thus, began a century-long dispute about ownership and land rights in the Galletué Lake area. Two

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

s began operation in 1946 and logging began. The loggers exploited the lush forests of monkey-puzzle (''Araucaria araucana'') trees, thus depriving the Pehuenche of one of their most important foods and sources of income, the

pine nuts Pine nuts, also called piñón (), pinoli (), or pignoli, are the edible seeds of pines (family Pinaceae, genus ''Pinus''). According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, only 29 species provide edible nuts, while 20 are traded locall ...

produced in abundance by the araucaria trees. The araucaria is an endangered species due to logging, forest fires, and grazing. The resistance by the Pehuenche to the loggers led to violence and repression of them by the police in the 1960s. In 1987, a

forest fire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a bushfire ( in Australia), dese ...

caused by the logging companies burned hundreds of acres of Araucaria trees. In 1989, the Chilean courts ordered the expulsion of the Pehuenche from the Quinquén valley. However, the Pehuenche found an ally in newly-elected Chilean President

Patricio Aylwin Patricio Aylwin Azócar (; 26 November 1918 – 19 April 2016) was a Chilean politician from the Christian Democratic Party of Chile, Christian Democratic Party, lawyer, author, professor and former senator. He was the 30th president of Chil ...

. In 1990, Aylwin forbade the logging of Araucaria trees and in 1991 declared the Quinquén Valley to be the National Reserve of the Galletué, proceeding to purchase the lands from logging companies for the Pehuenche. The government completed the purchase in 1992, acquiring for 6,150,000 U.S. dollars. The land purchased included Galletué Lake and adjacent areas. However, legal challenges prevented the transfer of the land to the Pehuenche families living in the valley for a number of years. Much of the land purchased by the government was finally titled to the Pehuenche in 2007. With assistance from the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the ...

and Chilean environmental organizations, the Pehuenche focused on developing the land for eco-tourism. More than 120 Pehuenche families occupy the area purchased.Quinquén", ''Memoria Chilena, Biblioteca Nacional de Chile,'' http://www.memoriachilena.cl/602/w3-article-96734.html, accessed 24 Apr 2018

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Galletue Lake Lakes of Chile Lakes of Araucanía Region Mapuche groups Indigenous peoples in Chile