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The initial human habitation of Patagonia indicates a history of around 14,000 years and is characterized by a slow process resulting from the displacement of groups of people looking for new hunting territories for large mammals, such as the mylodon (giant ground sloth), which has been extinct for 10,000 years. In Chile, the presence of early mankind and an organized civilization has been discovered from Punta Arenas to Osorno, where sites such as Pilauco Bajo near Osorno and Monte Verde near Puerto Montt provide us with ample testimony to the facts.

There is a concensus regarding the importance of river courses in determining the location of settlements and the spread of human populations in Patagonia during the pre-Hispanic era, covering the Río Calle-Calle, Río Limay and Río Negro, up to the environs of the Río Chubut and the Río Santa Cruz. Given the above, it is therefore necessary to consider rivers and their waterways that flow from east to west, from the Andes to the sea, as the natural borders of the region under review.