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grew accustomed to Creole products such as hardwares, horses, cattle,
tobacco, and aguardiente, which became life “necessities.” At frontier
forts and rural pulperías, they exchanged these items for indigenous
goods useful to Western society: guanaco skins, ostrich feathers, plaited
leather goods, and ponchos. Yet, there existed no exchange for the com-
modity that the Hispanic Argentines most coveted—the land itself.
The expanding estanciero class of the 19th century wished to turn
the seminomadic Indians into “good peons.” The landowners were
unsuccessful. Prairie hunters were indifferent agricultural workers. In
order to deal with hostile natives, the government maintained militia
outposts on the expanding frontiers, and Governor Rosas regularized a
colonial policy of requisitioning horses and cattle from the estancieros
as a ration for the Indians, who grew partial to the taste of mare's meat.
By mid-century, ranches and frontier towns enjoyed relative security.
But Indian raids occurred once again during the war with Paraguay.
Thereafter, the prospect of immigrants replacing the indigenous people
as the future workers on the Pampas motivated the national govern-
ment to resolve the “Indian problem” through extermination. The
national army provided the means. Rather than each frontier province
dealing haphazardly with the indigenous peoples, the job now fell to
a national army forged in the crucible of the Paraguayan war. General
Throughout the middle part of the 19th century, indigenous tribes continued to raid Argentine
estancias and cart trains, as shown here. It was not until 1879 that the raiders were quelled
by a campaign of overwhelming force. (Albérico Isola, 1844, courtesy Emece Editores)
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