“Indians in the cowboy genre no one exceeds them”: use of indigenous labor and the expropriation of Guarani land and cattle in Rio Grande do Sul (1777-1835)

Abstract

We demonstrate the importance of indigenous people as specialized livestock workers, between the end of the colonial period and the beginning of the imperial period. Although the allegations of the non-existence of the indigenous people in the years 1820-1830 were reinforced, they were working as cowboys in several locations, smuggling cattle on the border and acting strongly for the maintenance of the lands and herds of the old missionary farms.