In this paper, we analyse the cultural models (or folk theory of language) that the Mapuche intellectual elite have about Mapudungun, the native language of the Mapuche people still spoken today in Chile as the major minority language. Our theoretical frame is folk linguistics and studies of language ideology, but we have also taken an applied linguistics approach to address the effects that such cultural models have had on language planning and revitalisation. We will propose that the view of the Mapuche elite is largely influenced by the standard language ideology, and that this influence has been detrimental for the revitalisation of Mapudungun. We observe this cultural model in a sample of texts, interviews and data obtained during ethnographic fieldwork in Chile. © 2013 Taylor & Francis.