Chilean Indians protest against white man's conquest Story-Date: 03:31 p.m. PST Sunday , October 12, 1997 ------------------------------------------------------------ Chilean Indians protest against white man's conquest SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chilean Indians, art students and punk protesters marched through downtown Santiago Sunday to denounce Columbus' discovery of America as the beginning of the genocide of the continent's native peoples. Banging drums and rattles and blowing horns and flutes on the 505th anniversary of Columbus' arrival, about 100 people walked to the city's Plaza de Armas square where poncho-clad speakers demanded self-rule for Indian tribes. "We won't accept Chilean laws because we are an indigenous people," said Jose Paillal, a young Mapuche leader. "Our war is not against the Chilean people but against the Chilean system of oppression." The Mapuches, Chile's largest tribe, resisted Spanish rule for nearly 400 years in the south of the country before being dominated by Chilean troops about 100 years ago. Their militant descendants demand autonomy from the Chilean government and oppose projects to build highways, dams, mines and big forestry plants on their tribal lands. Jose Nain, a Mapuche leader of the All Lands Council, heaped criticism on hydroelectric projects being built on the Bio Bio river, which would displace hundreds of Pehuenche natives. Chilean power company Endesa has already built one dam on the Bio Bio near the southern city of Concepcion, is building another and hopes to build several more on the river which traditionally marked the boundary of Mapuche territory. Activists also called for the removal of the Monument to the Indigenous Peoples, a huge stone sculpture in downtown Santiago which they called an insult to their tribes. The monument, erected in 1992 on the 500th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the Bahamas, depicts the Andes mountains with the head of a Mapuche protruding from its side. According to native groups, there are some 1.2 million Indians in Chile, which has a total population of 14 million. REUTERS ------------------------------------------------------------