Tehuelche people

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 Patagons 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.