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.