Similar success stories are being replicated across central Argentina, not just in La Pampa but in neighboring San Luis Province, too.

In western La Pampa, the authorities have supported Ranquel communities, including one called Epumer, that have been threatened with eviction because of legal battles over territory. Fears abound of an escalation in such disputes as farmers seek new frontiers beyond Argentina’s agricultural heartland.

Seeking to reconnect the population with its indigenous roots, leaders also give talks to schoolchildren. And in Santa Rosa, which will host a Latin American summit meeting of indigenous peoples this month, the chieftains council moved about five years ago into modest rented headquarters that house a small library and guest rooms.

In a meeting room where a newly designed Ranquel flag is displayed, classes in the Ranquel language are taught to groups of adults. In Victorica, road signs even carry Ranquel translations of Spanish street numbers.

Still, obstacles persist. Advocates, for instance, say no community has yet been handed the deeds to reclaimed lands.

And highlighting the tentative nature of even the Ranquel’s most pivotal accomplishment, Osvaldo R. Borthiry, 83, the landowner who donated the two hectares at the Leuvucó site, said his children would decide the property’s future.

Others dismiss the idea of working within the system and call for a separatist stance. “When your country does not represent who you are, what else can you do?” said Miguel Ángel Saulo, 62, a leader of the Tehuelche people in the south of Argentina.

But the Ranquel and their supporters remain undeterred.

“It used to be embarrassing to say that you were a descendant of indigenous people,” said Marcela Suárez, 46, a janitor, as she stamped around the wooden stake at Leuvucó. “Now it makes you proud.”