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The Massacre of Salsipuedes ( Spanish: Masacre de Salsipuedes), also known as the Slaughter of Salsipuedes ( Spanish: Matanza de Salsipuedes) or simply Salsipuedes, was a genocidal attack carried out on 11 April 1831 by the Uruguayan Army, led by Fructuoso Rivera, as the culmination of the government's efforts to eradicate the Charrúa from Uruguay. ^{[1] [2]}

The massacre took place on the riverbanks of the Great Salsipuedes Creek, named after the massacre in question; the name is a contraction of the Spanish phrase sal si puedes ("get out if you can"). ^[3] Following the massacre, the survivors were forcibly marched to Montevideo and sold into slavery, four of which were sent to a human zoo in Paris. It is commonly, albeit erroneously, thought of as the event that exterminated the Charrúa as a people.

Background

At the time of first contact with Europeans in the 16th century, the Charrúa were the predominant people in the territory of modern-day Uruguay, with smaller populations of Chaná and Guaraní peoples residing in the area as well. The Charrúa lived semi-nomadically, their migration influenced by rain, drought, and the availability of prey. The area was settled by Europeans much later than the rest of South America, owing to fierce indigenous resistance along with the lack of natural resources attractive to the various empires. ^[4] Following the establishment of the first permanent European settlements throughout the 17th and early 18th century, Uruguay became a battleground between the British, Spanish and Portuguese colonial forces as part of the fight over dominance of the La Plata Basin. Following decades of fierce fighting between the Charrúas and the Spanish colonists, a peace treaty was signed on 22 March 1732 where the Charrúa, in exchange for recognising Spanish laws, had their laws and sovereignty recognised by the Spanish in kind.

By the time Uruguay had secured independence with the Treaty of Montevideo, the nascent Uruguayan state had established an uncertain but partially fruitful relation to its indigenous subjects. The Thirty-Three Orientals enjoyed fervent support among the Charrúa, seeing them as bulwarks against the Brazilian empire that had previously displaced them. Many Charrúa, Chaná and Guaraní (including one of the survivors later sent to France) served in José Gervasio Artigas' forces during Uruguay's struggle for independence against the Spanish and later Portuguese-Brazilian empires. Some, like the Guaraní Andrés Guazurary, even reached the rank of caudillo and led vital battles to secure what is today Uruguay's northeastern border. In the years leading up to Salsipuedes, however, indigenous peoples' place in Uruguay were being put into question: although they had helped to secure the country's borders and independence, the nascent Creoles argued that maintaining the indigenous way of life, and by extension the existence of the Charrúa, was no longer necessary for the organisation of the state. ^[5] Artigas and Rivera were in favour of maintaining peace with the Guaraní and Creoles, who had become compatible with their view of an independent Uruguayan society through their assimilation into sedentary life and interaction with the missions. The fortunes of the Charrúa in particular had been in steady decline leading up to Salsipuedes: ferocious intra-indigenous infighting had affected them heavily, with Guazurary (considered by Artigas to be his indigenous political heir) clashing fiercely with the Charrúa during his military campaigns. Warfare, disease, as well as the gradual assimilation of indigenous people through admixture, the disruption of their way of life by cattle exploitation, and the controversial Jesuit missions all had their effects: by the early 19th century, few still lived according to the traditional Charrúa way of life.

The remaining who did, however, continued to move freely throughout northern Uruguay like in pre-colonial times. Because of this, the authorities increasingly saw them as an insurmountable "obstacle" to establishing what they saw as an organised society, with the Charrúa coming into increasingly frequent conflicts with white settlers that desired to expand into the area. With their way of life an undeniable disruption of their settler-colonial ambitions, the white settlers began to raise allegations of murder, rape and robbery against the Charrúa. In February 1830, Juan Antonio Lavalleja propositioned to Rivera that the Charrúa, whom Lavalleja considered to be "wicked people who know no restraint (...) (and could not) be left to their natural inclinations", should be confronted in order to satisfy the settlers' demands for protection. ^[6] Rivera, who had maintained friendly relations with the Charrúa up to that point and still enjoyed widespread popularity for his role in the war for independence, agreed to spearhead the Campaña de Salsipuedes — The Salsipuedes campaign.

Massacre

In early 1831, Rivera summoned the leading Charrúa chiefs — Venado, Polidoro, Rondeau and Juan Pedro — and their families to a meeting on a riverbank of what is today known as the Great Salsipuedes Creek. As a cover story, Rivera had told the chiefs that the army was in need of their help to protect the border region. When the Charrúas arrived by the hundreds on 11 April 1831, one of the army generals furthered the ruse by releasing his horses as a gesture of good faith, and the chiefs reciprocated by releasing most of their horses as well. As the meeting progressed, the Charrúas became increasingly drunk and off their guard; the details of the subsequent events are uncertain and subject to dispute. According to Eduardo Acevedo Díaz, the signal to trigger the attack came when Rivera asked for Chief Venado's knife in order to chop tobacco, whereupon Venado was shot dead. In any case, the Charrúa were suddenly surrounded by 1200 soldiers under the command of Bernabé Rivera, President Rivera's nephew.

According to official numbers, 40 people were killed and 300 were taken prisoner; among the soldiers, 9 were wounded and 1 was killed. ^[7]

Aftermath and legacy

The survivors were forcibly marched 260 km to Montevideo, where they were sold into slavery. ^[8] The massacre was followed by two other attacks by the Queguay Grande River and the "La cueva del Tigre" passage respectively, in order to track down and eliminate the Charrúas that had either escaped or not been present.^{[ citation needed]} On 17 August, Bernabé Rivera's army ambushed a group of Charrúa in Mataojo led by the chiefs El Adivino and Juan Pedro, of which 15 were killed and 80 were taken prisoner; 18 Charrúa, including the chief Polidoro, managed to escape. On 17 June of the following year, a failed ambush at the Yacaré Cururú Creek resulted in Bernabé Rivera, along with 2 officers and 9 soldiers, being killed by a group of Charrúa that had survived the previous attacks.

Hearing of the Charrúa prisoners being put up for sale, the director of the Oriental School of Montevideo thought the story of a nearly extinct people would spark the interest of French scientists and the public. ^[9] Thusly, French ex-general François Curel agreed to buy four Charrúa to be exhibited in Paris: medicine man Senacua Sénaqué, warrior Vaimaca-Pirú Sira (who had previously served under Artigas), ^[10] and the young couple Laureano Tacuavé Martínez and María Micaela Guyunusa; Guyunusa was pregnant at the time. ^[11]

The four Charrúa disembarked with Curel on 25 February 1833, arriving in Saint-Malo on 7 May of that year before being transported to Paris, where they were exhibited as part of a human zoo. ^[12] On 20 September, Guyunusa gave birth to a girl biologically fathered by Sira: initially given the name María Mónica Micaëla Igualdad Libertad, her French birth certificate lists her name as Caroliné Tacouavé. ^{[13] [14]} Sénaqué, Sira and Guyunusa all passed away within the first year of their arrival, with Guyunusa's widower Tacuavé adopting the infant girl as his own. She passed away the following year, surmised by historian Darío Arce Asenjo to be from the same disease that took Guyunusa. ^[12]

The ultimate fate of Tacauvé, the last survivor of the group, is unknown; his later activities are scantly documented for and no record of his death has been found, but Asenjo theorised from the few existing records that he integrated into the French lifestyle, adopting the Francophone spelling of his name and working as a medicine salesman and maker of card decks for some time before dying of sickness of old age, It is unknown whether he left any descendants. ^[12]

The sculpture Los Últimos Charrúas ("The Final Charrúas") was erected in their memory in Montevideo, Uruguay.

The massacre led to the disappearance of the Charrúa from Uruguayan public memory, and the Charrúa language is today considered extinct. Although the massacre is commonly thought of as having led to the complete destruction of the Charrúa as a people, several Charrúa communities did survive in neighbouring Argentina and Brazil after the messacre. Between 160,000 and 300,000 people residing in Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil today are descended from the surviving Charrúa, ^[6] and many of them have publicly reclaimed and promoted their Charrúa identity: the Asociación de Descendientes de la Nación Charrúa (ADENCH, English: Association of the Descendants of the Charrúa Nation) was founded in August 1989 to conserve and promote the history, knowledge and culture of the Charrúa, and the organisation Consejo de la Nación Charrúa (CONACHA, English: Council of the Charrúa Nation) was founded in 2005 by 10 communities and organisations to advocate for the recognition and self-identification of Uruguayan indigenous peoples. ^[15]

References