CHIQUITAN, an independent linguistic stock of South American Indians, so called from the Chiquitos who are the best known of its tribes. The stock occupies a considerable area in eastern Bolivia, in the forested hilly country on the northern border of the Chaco. In recent times they have held the area be tween the headwaters of the Guapore on the north and the hills on the northern bank of the Otuquis river on the south, and between the San Miguel river in the west and the Paraguay in the east. It is probable that they formerly extended farther west to the foothills of the Andes and may have been forced eastward as a result of the displacements of peoples consequent on the inva sion and settlement of the Chiriguanos in the early i6th century. The Chiquitos were a rather warlike and originally mainly nomadic hunting and fishing folk of simple culture. Their name, meaning "little ones" in Spanish, was given them on account of the very small doorways of their tiny thatched huts, through which one had to crawl on hands and knees. They seem to have had some palisaded strongholds and to have used poisoned arrows. Some of the tribes made good pottery and simple textiles. They had no canoes. Monogamy was the rule except for the chiefs, who were not hereditary but chosen for valour and ability. The youth before marriage lived apart in a special house. The shamans appear to have used snakes a good deal in connection with their religious ceremonies. The best known tribe of this stock to-day is the Lenguas (q.v.) .
See J. P. Fernandez, Relacion historial de las missions de los Indios que llaman Chiquitos, etc. (Madrid, 1726).