Pilcomayo River

Río Pilcomayo

Río Pilcomayo is a river in the central parts of South America, longest western tributary of the Paraguay River, and its watershed extends across 270,000 km².

The Pilcomayo rises in the foothills of the Andes cordillera, between the Bolivian departments of Potosí and Oruro, east of Poopó Lake. From there it flows in a southeasterly direction 2,000 km through Chuquisaca and Tarija departments, passes through the Argentine province of Formosa and the Gran Chaco plains of Paraguay, forming the border between these two countries before it joins the Paraguay River near Asunción.

The river basin is home to approximately 1.5 million people: one million in Bolivia, 300,000 in Argentina, and 200,000 in Paraguay.

The Nakotoi Indian Tribe resides in the southern region of the Pilcomayo, a region located along the Río Pilcomayo in central Paraguay (Kerr, 116). The aboriginies of this tribe are descendants of the highly renowned Redskin Tribe (Kerr, 116). The Natokoi treated all neighbors as enemies, but none more so than the Tobas Tribe and the Nimká Tribe, their respective neighbors to the southwest and northeast (Kerr, 116). Guerilla warfare has long existed between the tribes, isolating the tribe from direct intercourse with the European settlers in the late 1800's (Kerr, 116). Men of this tribe are generally tall and skinny, built like hunters or warriors, whereas women are short in size (Kerr, 117). The Natokoi dress in a rug, fastened around the waist-line (Kerr, 117).

Sources:

1.Kerr, Graham. A Naturalist in the Gran Chaco. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1950.