[5] Despite her initial hesitation, wanting to stay in school, at age 12 she became a machi, a Mapuche traditional healer and religious leader.

[6] In 2008, she submitted a protection action known as an Action of Rights Protection against Sociedad Palermo Ltd., owned by the Taladriz family, to stop the company from illegally felling trees and shrubs of the native forest along the slopes of Cerro Rahue and replacing them with pine trees.

[14] Fourteen days later, she ended her hunger strike after the Temuco Court of Appeals allowed her to leave pretrial detention and instead be put under house arrest.

[15] On August 22, 2017, the World Organisation Against Torture's Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, the International Federation for Human Rights, and the Chilean organization Observatorio Ciudadano issued a statement of concern about using the Chilean Anti-Terrorist Law [es] against Linconao and 10 other Mapuche community members.

[18] Early reports suggested that Francisca Linconao was seen as "the natural candidate" for indigenous members of the Constitutional Convention to support for president of the body.

However, Linconao declined to run, instead proposing that Elisa Loncón stand for the presidency of the convention during a Winter solstice meeting held in her house in Padre Las Casas.