Desde los principios de aquella misión, y tiempo inmemorial: the indios de la compañía as an alternative path towards Indigenous community formation in Chiloé, 1626–1767

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article follows the historical trajectory of the indios de la compañía, a group of Indigenous auxiliaries who performed labor for the Jesuit Order in Chiloé between 1626 and 1767, as a way of exploring place-specific forms of colonial social identity and Indigenous community formation in a borderlands region. The Jesuits held usufruct rights over Indigenous tributaries in Chiloé during 150 years through a series of arrangements that involved the Order, local encomenderos and justices, colonial administrators, and the Real Audiencia of Santiago which, put together, developed a legal custom that underpinned communal viability. This article argues the indios de la compañía constituted an alternative path towards Indigenous community formation in Chiloé, one that was not organized around the local encomienda regime. The absence of particular ethnonyms in this study’s archival base beyond the generic indio/yndio suggests this group’s social identity was not structured around ethnic affiliation, but rather around the specialized forms of labor they performed and the mutual ties of dependence they generated with the Jesuits.