The Toba people, also known as the Qom people, are one of the largest Indigenous groups in Argentina who historically inhabited the region known today as the Pampas of the Central Chaco. During the 16th century, the Qom inhabited a large part of what is today northern Argentina, in the current provinces of Salta, Chaco, Santiago del Estero, Formosa and the province of Gran Chaco in the southeast of the Department of Tarija in Bolivia (which the Qom have inhabited since the 20th century). Currently, many Toba, due to persecution in their rural ancestral regions, live in the suburbs of San Ramón de la Nueva Orán, Salta, Tartagal, Resistencia, Charata, Formosa, Rosario and Santa Fe and in Greater Buenos Aires. Nearly 130,000 people currently identify themselves as Toba or Qom. With more than 120,000 Qom living in Argentina, the Qom community is one of the largest Indigenous communities in the country.
Like most Indigenous groups in South America, the Qom have a long history of conflict and struggle following the arrival of the Spanish. While the Qom incorporated some aspects of European society into their culture, such as horseback riding, violent conflicts were fairly common. The Toba people, in particular, opposed the ideas of Christianity and the systems of forced labor that were imposed upon the Qom during the lives at Jesuit reductions. In some cases, attempts to assimilate the Toba people to Spanish society were accomplished with force and, when met with resistance from the Indigenous group, resulted in massacres such as the Massacre of Napalpí. In more recent history, the Qom have struggled with problems such as poverty, malnutrition, discrimination and tuberculosis due to a lack of support from the community and the inequalities they have endured.
In 2010, a historic protest for land rights developed in the province of Formosa when the government announced it would build a university on lands traditionally claimed by the Qom. After the Tobas' roadblock of National Route 86 was met with violence on behalf of the Argentine police, resulting in the death of one Toba man and one police officer, the protest sparked national controversy and attention. Led by chief Félix Díaz, the Qom community, joined by other Indigenous groups, began the Qopiwini organization and built an encampment in the middle of the city of Buenos Aires in order to continue protests and gain further recognition. While the protests have gained support from famous artists such as Gustavo Cordera, as well as international organizations such as Amnesty International and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Qom's struggle for land rights and the Formosa case is still developing.
History
Early history
At the time of the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, the Qom primarily inhabited the regions known today as Salta and Tarija and from there, Qom communities extended in territory until the Bermejo River and the Pilcomayo River, overlapping with other Indigenous communities. The large demographic growth of the Wichi put pressure on the Qom and forced them to displace themselves farther east, to the territories that they largely inhabit today. Traditionally, the Qom and the Mocoví peoples regarded each other as allies while the Abipon peoples were typically treated as enemies to the Qom.Saeger, J. (1999). Warfare, Reorganization, and Readaptation at the Margins of Spanish Rule – The Chaco and Paraguay (1573–1882). In F. Salomon & S. Schwartz (Eds.), The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas (The Cambridge history of the Native Peoples of the Americas, pp. 257-286). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521630764.006
Like other Guaycuru peoples, the Qom organize themselves into bands composed by up to 60 families that would establish relationships with other bands. The principal groups among the Toba were the who inhabited the northern or region, the who inhabited the western or region, the who inhabited the southeastern or region, the who inhabited the eastern or region and the who inhabited the southernmost region known as .Wright, P. (1983, 1984). Nota sobre gentilicios toba. Relaciones de la Sociedad Argentina de Antropología, 16, pp. 225-233.
Contact with Europeans The first written record of Spanish interaction with the Qom appears at the beginning of the 1700s but no formal study of the Qom people was done until Father José Cardú, a Spanish Franciscan missionary, estimated that there were at least 4,000 Tobas living in the western or region. The first missionaries to make contact with the Qom did not immediately try to introduce them to an agricultural lifestyle, an approach that was adopted in almost every other part of Latin America in order to "civilize" the Indigenous group. Instead, the limited resources and the difficulties presented by the landscape of the Chaco forced missionaries to accept the Qom's hunter-gatherer lifestyle as the only sustainable option. The presence of the Spanish resulted in a great revolution for the Qom, in part because the Qom encountered a new and powerful enemy and in part because the Spanish involuntarily provided the Qom with a great contribution to their culture: in the 17th century the Qom began to utilize horses and soon developed a powerful equestrian complex in the center and southern part of the Gran Chaco region, known as the Chaco Gualamba.
The Qom became competent horsemen despite the fact that their territory was in large part covered in woodlands forests. When riding their horses through the trees the Qom used to fasten pieces of leather to their heads in order to prevent injuries from the spines of the trees and attacks from jaguars and pumas that would jump from the tree branches to attack them. As enemies of the Paraguayan state, on nights of the full moon, the Qom and other neighboring guaycurú groups would cross the Paraguay River on horse in order to carry out raids. With the adoption of horseback riding, the Qom could extend the reach of their raids, transforming themselves into the dominant Indigenous group of the Central Chaco. Furthermore, their command of the horses permitted the Qom to advance further west and even conduct raids in the northeast zones that correspond to what is today known as the Pampas. From their horses, armed with bows and arrows, the Qom hunted not only Indigenous animals but also cattle that had been imported from Europe. While the horse played a revolutionary role in changing the way in which the Qom travelled and participated in hunts and raids, some historians believe that some bands of Qom maintained more traditional hunting methods. Here, the Qom would use horses to approach their targets but would dismount and stalk their prey on foot in order to avoid notice.
In 1756 the Jesuits founded the Toba reduction, San Ignacio de Ledesma, near the Ledesma fort in the province of Jujuy. At the time of the expulsion of the Jesuits from Latin America in 1768, there were 600 Qom living at the reduction.
The Qom became one of the most resistant Indigenous groups that opposed attempts at transculturation and usurpation of the white man in the Chaco region. Led by famous chiefs such as Tayolique, the Qom frequently used guns to oppose European intervention and continued to update their rifles in order to better defend themselves and their territory. In 1858, the Qom even threatened the city of Santa Fe. However, after 1880 they could not confront the Argentine Army that confined them to the so-called "Impenetrable Chaco", a densely forested area of the Chaco that was difficult to navigate and survive due to the scarcity of water.
In 1901, the government, led by Julio Argentino Roca, as well as Franciscan missionaries from the convent of San Carlos Borromeo of San Lorenzo in Santa Fe agreed to found two Indigenous reductions in the National Territory of Formosa. One of the missions, San Francisco Solano de Tacaaglé, was initiated by the Franciscan friar Terence Marcucci on March 21, 1901 with 150 Qom and Pilagá people largely coming from the northern Chaco in Paraguay. The mission occupied 20,000 hectares of land near the Pilcomayo River, inside of which the mission itself was moved various times. The second reduction, San Francisco de Laishí was founded with the Qom people on March 25, 1901 in the southeast region of Formosa by Father Serafín Iturralde and Father Ghio. This mission was composed of 74,000 hectares of land in which there was a sugar factory that operated until 1946. When Formosa became an official province in 1955, the two missions were given civil control, resulting in the towns of Misión Tacaaglé and San Francisco de Laishí.
The Indigenous people of the Gran Chaco, in general, maintained their sovereignty until the late 19th century. The conquest of the territory and the subjugation of their people during the Conquest of the Gran Chaco decimated the population. In the second half of the 20th century, when the Qom stopped working as agrarian labor, a massive expulsion of Indigenous people from the area resulted. The first conquest over the territories began in 1884 and is remembered as the Conquest of the Gran Chaco. One of the principal protagonists of this campaign was General Victorica. During this mission that began in 1911, General Victoria led his men into the Chaco region, ultimately ending a revolt led by the Qom in 1916.Langer, Erick. (2002). The Eastern Andean Frontier (Bolivia and Argentina) and Latin American Frontiers: Comparative Contexts (19th and 20th Centuries). The Americas, 59(1), 33-63. Afterwards, the Qom remained marginalized in the poorest areas and as a result of the reduction in the size of their territories, survival became even harder. In 1924, when the government led by Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear wanted to increase farming areas by giving land to foreigners and Creoles while concentrating the Qom on reservations, the Qom fought their last military resistance in the Indigenous Colony of Napalpí in the province of Chaco.Lenton, Liana; Slavsky, Leonor; Bigot, Margot; Rodríguez, Graciela B.; Vázquez, Héctor; Tamagno, Liliana; Fraguas, Mimí; Radovich, Juan Carlos; "Problemática indígena: estudios antropológicos sobre pueblos indígenas de la Argentina"; Buenos Aires: Centro Editor de América Latina, 1992 p 23. This battle resulted in the death of 200 Qom, an event that is known as the Massacre of Napalpí. Many Qom were forced to work on cotton plantations or in manufacturing plants. On July 19, 1924, during the presidency of Marcelo T. de Alvear, 200 people from the Qom and Mocoví communities died at the hands of the Chaco police and estancia owners. More than 700 people were injured, including women, children and the elderly. Those who weren't killed by police gunfire had their throats slit with machetes and axes by the National Police troops, sent by Alvear.Las masacres del olvido. Napalpi, la genealogía del genocidio y el racismo de Estado en la Argentina. Revista Runa In 2022, Argentina opened a 'truth trial' about the Napalpí massacre, the first to look at persecution of Indigenous people in the country.
Recent history
In 2006, the primary groups of the Qom were located in the western part of the province of Formosa, the center and eastern sections of the Chaco province and the northern part of the province of Santa Fe, as well as the Chaco Boreal in Paraguay. In Argentina, there are 69,462 registered Qom, with 59,800 members of the tribe who speak the Indigenous language. In Paraguay, there are around 700 Qom. In the western region of the province of Formosa, the Qom have mixed with the Pilagá community and are referred to as the Toba-Pilagá.