A public inquiry about the malón. Arévalo Fort, 1859

Abstract

Based on a malón on Arévalo fort -located in Saladillo- in 1859, and the inquiry instructed to determine the response of the frontier political-military officials on duty, the following paper details the steps of an investigation into the indigenous history of the Pampas during the second half of the 19th century. Alongside with the exposition of reflections and methodological decisions made throughout the research, the manuscript ties together processes such us: civil war, indigenous politics and interethnic dynamics, incorporating what happened in the abovementioned fort into a broader explanation. The result is the analysis of the links, quite elusive in the archival sources at hand, between actors and events from different places and situations, which contributes not only to study the malón on fort Arévalo and the interethnic conflict in western Buenos Aires, but also to the political history of indigenous societies and frontier society as a whole.