This article analyses the way in which patriots considered and decided the question about the inclusion of Indians (o native aborigines) to the new political system to be implemented in Chile from 1810. The problem will be worked out considering three interconnected aspects. Firstly, the dislocation of the Indian villages, the social inclusion considering them as citizens in a new society, not divided into castes. Secondly, the process of identification of Chilean creoles with 'Mapuches-Araucanos' through the appropriation of the 'Arauco myth'. And thirdly, the new definition of the myth in republican terms, once the Araucanos decided to support the royalist cause.