The Nivaclés, an ancient Chaco people in South America


The Nivaclés, also called Chulupí, are an indigenous people of the Chaco  region that inhabit both banks of the Pilcomayo River They are mainly located in rural areas of the departments of Boquerón and Presidente Hayes departaments in Paraguay and in the suburbs of the cities  Mariscal Estigarribia and Filadelfia They are linguistically related to the Wichís, Makas and Charrúas. The neighboring chorotes call them ashuslay or alhulhai.
In their language the word nivaclé  means person, we or our people. 
Historically, they have been planters of corn, beans, squash and cassava, carob pod and collectors of some wild plants. They also breed birds and small mammals and, in addition,  they fish and hunt.
The List of Indigenous Communities of Paraguay registers about 75 nivaclés communities in the Chaco. According to the results of the 2012 census, 16 350 Nivaclés live in Paraguay, of which 12 829 are in the department of Boquerón and 3,300 in the Presidente Hayes Department.

According to Paraguayan sources, the Nivaclés emigrated to the Chaco Boreal from the south of the Pilcomayo River in 1913 because of Argentine military pressure.

Since the mid-twentieth century some 15,000 Mennonites from Canada, Russia and Germany settled in the traditional Nivaclé territory, drastically altering their cultural and religious customs, and frequently using nivacles as cheap labor, without their rights being protected by the Paraguayan state.

In Argentina there are about 1,000 nivaclés, which generally live near the Pilcomayo River and its marshes in the provinces of Salto and Formosa, and to a lesser extent in the province of Chaco, in which they are concentrated in about 10 communities.

The Nivaclés are linguistically related to the wichís (that inhabit Salta, Formosa and the Chaco), to the macá (that reside in a suburban district of Asunción, and in smaller degree to the Charrúas (according to investigations that I realized and published in "The Peoples of the Jaguar") and perhaps to the Minuanes or Guenoas.

I enclose some images of a visit we made to nivaclés communities near Mariscal Estigarribia in the Paraguayan Chaco.