The Tehuelche people is a collective name for some native tribes of Patagonia and the southern pampas region in Argentina and Chile.
"Tehuelche" is a Mapudungun word meaning "Fierce People". They were also called Pentagons by the European explorers.
It is possible that the stories of the early European explorers about the Patagones, a race of giants in South America, are based on the Tehuelches, because the Tehuelches are typically tall. According to the 2001 census [INDEC], there were 4,300 Tehuelche in the provinces of Chubut and Santa Cruz, and a further 1,637 in other parts of Argentina.
The Tehuelche people have a history of over 14,500 years. Their pre-Columbian history is divided in three main stages: a stage with highly-sized rock tools, a stage where the use of bolas prevailed over the peaked projectiles, and a third one of highly complex rock tools, each one with a specific purpose. However, the nomadic lifestyle of Tehuelches left scarce archeological evidence of their past. They were hunter-gatherers living as nomads. During the winters they were in lowlands and during the summer they migrated to the central highlands of Patagonia and the Andes Mountains. Although they developed no original pottery, they are well known by their rupestrian art
