Massacre of Salsipuedes

Background

The Charrúa were an indigenous people who predominated in the lands between the Paraná and Uruguay rivers and later in the Banda Oriental, the territory that today comprises Uruguay and parts of southern Brazil. Following European contact and centuries of conflict, displacement, and disease, the Charrúa population had been severely diminished by the early 19th century. Although Charrúa fighters played a role in Uruguay's independence movement, including service under José Gervasio Artigas, post-independence political currents increasingly viewed the Charrúa's semi-nomadic way of life as incompatible with the organization of the new state. Settlers in northern Uruguay accused Charrúa communities of banditry and violence, and in February 1830 Fructuoso Rivera's rival Juan Antonio Lavalleja petitioned him to confront the Charrúa on settlers' behalf. Rivera, who had previously maintained friendly relations with Charrúa communities, agreed to lead what became known as the Campaña de Salsipuedes.

The Massacre

In early 1831, Rivera summoned Charrúa chiefs — Venado, Polidoro, Rondeau, and Juan Pedro — along with their families to a meeting on the banks of the Great Salsipuedes Creek, telling them the army needed their help protecting the border region. Hundreds of Charrúa arrived on 11 April 1831. As a show of good faith, an army general released his horses, and the Charrúa chiefs reciprocated. As the gathering progressed and the Charrúa became intoxicated, the army — reportedly 1,200 soldiers under the command of Bernabé Rivera, the president's nephew — surrounded and attacked them. According to official reporting, 40 Charrúa were killed and 300 taken prisoner, with an uncertain number escaping; 9 soldiers were wounded and 1 killed.

Aftermath

Survivors were forcibly marched roughly 260 km to Montevideo and sold into slavery. Follow-up military operations pursued Charrúa who had escaped or been absent from the initial massacre, including an attack near the Queguay Grande River and an ambush at Mataojo on 17 August 1831 that killed 15 and captured 80. In 1832, Bernabé Rivera and several soldiers were killed in a failed ambush by Charrúa survivors at the Yacaré Cururú Creek. Separately, four captured Charrúa — Senacua Sénaqué, Vaimaca-Pirú Sira, Laureano Tacuavé Martínez, and María Micaela Guyunusa — were purchased by French ex-general François Curel and transported to Paris, arriving in 1833, where they were exhibited in a human zoo. Guyunusa gave birth to a daughter in Paris; she, Sénaqué, and Sira died within their first year in France, and the infant girl died the following year. The eventual fate of Tacuavé, the last of the four, remains undocumented.

Legacy

Historians have described the massacre as a decisive event in the destruction of the Charrúa as a cohesive people with a shared identity, territory, and collective memory, and it contributed to their erasure from Uruguayan public memory for generations. The Charrúa language is considered extinct. However, communities of Charrúa descendants survived in Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil, with estimated numbers of descendants ranging from 160,000 to 300,000. Organizations such as ADENCH (founded 1989) and CONACHA (founded 2005) have worked to promote recognition of Charrúa identity and heritage.