Querandí

Querandí, also called Querandíes, South American Indians who inhabited the Argentine Pampas between Cabo Blanco on the Atlantic coast and the Córdoba Mountains on the western shores of the Río de la Plata. After the arrival of Spanish settlers, they are believed to have been absorbed into a larger group under the general name Pampas by which the indigenous peoples of the region are still known.

Little is known of the Querandí, but they are thought to have shared cultural characteristics with the surrounding plains peoples. They were hunters and gatherers, catching game with bolas and fish with nets. They violently resisted Spanish settlement and attempts to subjugate them during the 16th century. The adoption of the horse transformed Querandí life, as it did that of other plains Indians. They formed large nomadic bands and made war against other Indians and against the Spaniards. Scholars believe that disease and warfare took a great toll on the Querandí and other peoples of that region and may have prompted a southward migration.