The first historical records of the Pilagás date back to the 17th century, when they inhabited the Eastern area of the provinces of Chaco and Formosa on the Paraguay River, along with other groups such as the Abipón, the Mocoví, and the Toba.

The expansion stopped in the middle of the 18th century, due to the Spanish military pressure that displaced them from the Bermejo River, placing the Pilagá in the marshlands between the Pilcomayo and Paraguay rivers at the end of the 18th century, up to the area of Fortín Yunká to the west and the middle of the province of Formosa to the south.

It was founded by the Franciscan Terencio Marcucci on March 21, 1901, with 150 Toba and Pilagá, mostly coming from the Paraguayan Chaco Boreal.

[6] The massacre of Fortín Yunká, also known as “the last malón”,[7] which took place on March 19, 1919, against members of the Argentine Army, was initially attributed to Pilagá groups.

As a consequence of subsequent reprisals carried out by Argentine troops, an undetermined number of indigenous people were killed or displaced from their original territories.

On April 1, 2005, the Pilagá Federation filed a civil lawsuit against the National State in the Federal Court of Formosa, claiming financial compensation for the massacre of the Pilagá people that occurred in October 1947, known as the Rincón Bomba massacre, carried out during the first presidential term of Juan Domingo Perón, which was declared a crime against humanity.

[9] In 2010, the National Population Census in Argentina revealed that 5,137 people recognized themselves as Pilagá throughout the country, 4366 of whom resided in the province of Formosa.