Command Staff Bolivia / Brazil Circa 1903

In wood entirely adorned with silver-plated metal rings, or low-grade silver not hallmarked - decorated with silver coins, colored stones, horses, condors. Condition: oxidation, wear, missing a cabochon. - These sticks, called "command", celebrated the victory of the Republic over the indigenous uprisings of the Chiriguanos Indians. The Chiriguanos resisted the Spanish conquest for 300 years and participated in the Bolivian War of Independence (1809-1825 enlisted as warriors against the Spanish army). Paradoxically, they were gradually stripped of their lands with the arrival of the Republic. In 1892, a rebellion brought together more than 6,000 querembas (warriors) armed with arrows, bows, maces, knives and a few rifles. Inferior in their weaponry, they were decimated by the army and the landowners.