In the midst of sprawling tree farms on their ancestral lands, the Mapuche Indians are fighting the Chilean government to reclaim land they say was given away through false land titles to international timber companies who have damaged the environment and threatened the Mapuche way of life.

"We are a people who have been defrauded, who have exhausted every legal means of attaining redress, and we have the right to recover what was stolen from us, even if that means incorporating violence within our struggle," Jose Huenchunao, a Mapuche leader, told the New York Times.

The Chilean government, rather than negotiate, has arrested 18 Mapuche Indians on charges stemming from a Pinochet era anti-terrorism law. They will face trial soon.

"From the moment the Chilean state annexed Mapuche territory, and used violence to do so, the rule of law has never existed south of the Bío Bío [river]," Aucán Huilcamín, a leader of the Council of All Lands, told the New York Times. "The state refuses to recognize that we are a people with rights that were in force even before Chile existed as a nation and which remain in force today."

Sources:
"Mapuche Indians in Chile Struggle to Take Back Forests", New York Times (web), August 11, 2004.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/11/international/americas/11chile.html