At the time of the arrival of the Spanish, the Yaro people lived on the western bank of the
Uruguay River (present-day
Entre Ríos Province,
Argentina). Later the Charrúa displaced them between the
Negro River and the San Salvador (present-day departments of
Río Negro and
Durazno in
Uruguay) and in the lower Uruguay area in Entre Ríos. The Yaros were short in stature with thick legs and arms, which differentiated them from the Patagonian-type (tall) Charrúas. They practiced fishing and hunted
deer,
peccaries,
rheas and
cuises, but were mainly devoted to gathering honey, pine nuts, carob pods and seeds of the Misiones pine, from which they made an alcoholic beverage. Their lack of
agriculture excludes them from the Guaraní group. They were also unfamiliar with
pottery, the
bow and the
arrow. They did not build dwellings of durable materials, but instead erected windbreaks made from woven plants and placed on the windward side, without roof or walls. Very little is known about the Yaro language. During the period of Spanish domination the Yaros supported the Charrúas' struggle against the Spanish. At the time, the
Bohán people dominated the left bank of the Uruguay River from the Negro River to the
Cuareim River, especially in the Salto Grande area. Some groups moved to Entre Ríos. According to some scholars, the
Bohanes also belonged to the racial nucleus of the Yaros; others claim that they were a subgroup of the Charrúa with whom they merged.
Historical testimonies Ruy Díaz de Guzmán in his work
Historia Argentina del descubrimiento, población y conquista de las provincias del Río de la Plata ("Argentine History of the Discovery, Settlement and Conquest of the Provinces of the Río de la Plata"), completed in 1612, described how Yaros (whom he called
Chayos) and Charrúas killed Captain
Juan Álvarez Ramón, sent by Cabot to explore the Uruguay River: The difficulties presented by navigation of the Uruguay River south of the
Guaviraví River, the southern limit of the lands occupied by the Guaraníes and the northern limit of those occupied by Charrúas and Yaros, led Jesuit missionaries to found a reduction there to facilitate communications. Thus the reduction of
Nuestra Señora de los Reyes de Yapeyú was founded on 4 February 1627 by the
Society of Jesus to catechize Guaraní, Charrúa and Yaro groups. In 1657 the estancia-reduction of
San Andrés de Yaros was founded
a few leagues further down from Yapeyú, the first for Yaros, to which 500 head of cattle were assigned, but it could not be maintained for more than a year because its inhabitants preferred to return to nomadic life. It is not clear whether it was established with captured Yaros, or if they settled at the Ibirapita Guazú stream of their own will. The Jesuit
Diego de Boroa in his
Carta Annua ("Annual Letter") corresponding to 1635–1637, dated 13 August 1637, states referring to the
Yapeyú reduction: The French Jesuit
Nicolás del Techo in his work
Historia de la Provincia del Paraguay ("History of the Province of Paraguay"), published in 1673, stated regarding the Yaros: The German Jesuit
Antonio Sepp, when travelling toward Yapeyú along the Uruguay River in May 1691, noted in his
Diario de viaje ("Journey Diary") a description of the Yaros he encountered after passing the Negro River:
Félix de Azara in his
Descripción e historia del Paraguay y del Río de la Plata ("Description and History of Paraguay and the Río de la Plata", published in 1847, 26 years after his death) refers to the Yaros and situates them originally between the
Negro and the
San Salvador Rivers in Uruguay, coinciding with the area where Antonio Sepp had found them: Azara also said that the Charrúas exterminated the Yaros shortly before 1679: On 6 February 1702 the Charrúas and allies faced 2,000 mission Guaraníes in the
Battle of Yi and were defeated, suffering 300 deaths and 500 prisoners, mostly women and children. The Spanish commander stated in this regard: The Jesuit
Policarpo Dufó in the report to his superior of 9 February 1716 after the punitive campaign that in 1715 Francisco García de Piedrabuena carried out from the Yapeyú reduction to
Entre Ríos, stated:
The "wild Chanas", Cainaroes, and Camaraos Salvador Canals Frau in his work
Paleoamericanos (Laguidos) en la Mesopotamia argentina en la época colonial ("Paleo-Americans (Lagids) in the Argentine Mesopotamia in the Colonial Period"), published in 1940, argued on the basis of historical references that the Yaros were a people belonging to the
Lagid group of the
Kaingangs. In his view the
Camaraos (other transcriptions say
Camaraes and
Camaraus) that appear in the letter of
Luis Ramírez to his father dated 10 July 1528 are the Yaros. Luis Ramírez had participated in the expedition of
Sebastian Cabot to the
Río de la Plata in 1527 and places them between
Mocoretaes and
Mepenes, in what is now the interior of
Corrientes Province, Argentina: Canals Frau considered that the
Cainaroes that appear on the
world map of Sebastian Cabot, dated 1544 but recording the data of his expedition on the Paraná River in 1527, in the interior and east of Corrientes Province, are the
Camaraos of Luis Ramírez. Observing the similarities of location between the
Camaraos and
Cainaroes with the
Zeckennaus saluaischco (translated as
wild Chanás) that the German soldier of the expedition of the
adelantado Pedro de Mendoza,
Ulrich Schmidl, described that they encountered on the journey to
Paraguay in 1536 in his work
Viaje al Río de la Plata ("Journey to the Río de la Plata", published in 1567), Canals Frau inferred that they are one and the same: Canals Frau observed that Schmidl's description corresponds to the Kaingang type and to the historical references to the Yaros. The
Historia general y natural de las Indias, islas y tierra firme del mar océano ("General and Natural History of the Indies, Islands and Mainland of the Ocean Sea") was published by
Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo in parts between 1535 and 1557 with an account of the
wild Chanás: In later chronicles the wild Chanás, the Cainaroes, and the Camaraos do not appear, but Canals Frau observed that mentions of the
Gualachíes began to appear to the north and the Yaroes to the south on the Mesopotamian bank of the Uruguay River. In his opinion, the Gualachíes displaced the Cainaroes southward, and the Cainaroes began to be called Yaroes. The Gualachíes who inhabited the Argentine provinces of Corrientes and
Misiones before the arrival of the
Guaraníes seem to be of the same group as the Yaros and correspond to the Guayanás or Kaingang whom at the end of the
18th century Diego de Alvear and
Gonzalo de Doblas mention on both banks of the Paraná south of the
Iguazú River. Other ethnic groups of the interior of Corrientes mentioned by historical sources of the 18th century, such as the
Guayquirarós, the
Cupizalós, and the
Eguarós, would also be of the Kaingang family. ==References==