Tropachün, the young Mapuche woman captive and exhibited for over a century in a museum

Tropachün was a young Mapuche woman, a symbol of the indigenous genocide of the Desert Campaign. She was taken prisoner and enslaved in the La Plata Museum, where she died. It took 130 years for her remains to be returned to her ancestral territory.

October 9, 2025

Moira Millán

Capella Flower

Edited by: Ana Fornaro, María Eugenia Ludueña

The date of birth of Tropachün Foyel is unknown, it is estimated that it must have been in 1856, in Puelmapu, Patagonia, now Argentina.

She was the daughter of Longko Foyel, the principal leader of the lancers of the Mapuche-Tehuelche chief Sayhueke. In 1870, Tropachün was in Pilcaniyeu when George Clamort Muster, an English sailor and explorer, arrived in the area. Muster was captivated by her beauty and personality and wrote about her in his memoirs.

In 1884, Tropachün was taken prisoner along with her father and the rest of her family by the Argentine state during the indigenous genocide known as the Conquest of the Desert. She was first held captive in two concentration camps, Valcheta and Chinchinales (present-day Río Negro province).

In the spring of 1884, Catholic priests baptized her and renamed her Margarita Foyel de Colo Pichuin. Later, she was transferred to the Museum of Natural Sciences in La Plata, Buenos Aires Province. Of all the captives, she was the one the soldiers treated most cruelly, believed to be because she was the daughter of the great longko Foyel, as well as because of her character and personality. Despite the torture and hunger, testimonies highlight her strength.

At the La Plata Museum, she was forced to work on the production of the handcrafted pieces on display. And along with the other Indigenous people enslaved by science, she had to pose for public exhibition.

On September 23, 1887, Tropachün died at a very young age due to appalling living conditions. His body was emptied, embalmed, and displayed in a glass case.

She remained an object of exhibition for more than a century. 130 years had to pass after her death before her remains were finally returned to the territory where she was born and rode free, where she was once a fulfilled and happy child.

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