Indigenous people of the southern regions of South America.

One of Argentina's largest indigenous groups, whose ancestors originally came from Chilean Patagonia and whose biggest communities are found in the provinces of Chubut, Río Negro and especially Neuquén.

Mapuche (Mapudungun; Che, "People" + Mapu, "of the Land") are the original Amerindian inhabitants of Central and Southern Chile and Southern Argentina. They were known as Araucanos (Araucanians) by the Spaniards but this is now considered pejorative by the people and the term Mapuche is the one most often used by people in conversation and in the media in Chile and Argentina and is the one preferred by them. Contrary to popular belief, the Quechua word arauco (rebel), is not the root of araucano: it is more likely derived from the placename Arauco, meaning "clayey water" in Mapudungunhttp://www.serindigena.cl/territorios/recursos/biblioteca/monografias/lenguas/monografia_lenguas_mapuche2.htm Mapuche o Araucano http://escuela.med.puc.cl/publ/ArsMedica/ArsMedica4/08Zuniga.html Antecedentes históricos del pueblo araucano .