This article examines the way in which politics amongst the indigenous population became nationalised between the years 1826 and 1921. The problem of land ownership is presented as the catalyst of a process of public action and apprenticeship combining rebellions, legal battles and patronage agreements. The joint analysis of these actions allows, first, the refutation of the image of the Indians as pre-political, passive, incomprehensible and alien to all that was Western; second, to emphasise the important effect the national discourse had on the response of the Indians; and, third, to show the indigenous interest in taking part in the prevailing national project.