[7] While mostly living in arid highlands, their easternmost lands are part of the yungas, an altitude forests at the edge of the Amazon rainforest.

[1] Qulla traditions and historians like Thérèse Bouysse-Cassagne and Teresa Gisbert, in addition to linguist Alfredo Torero, posits a link to the pre-Incan Tiwanaku Polity.

[citation needed] With Argentinian independence in 1810, the situation of the Qulla people did not improve and they worked for minimal wages.

On 31 August 1945, Qulla communities in the northwestern Argentine provinces of Jujuy and Salta, through a group of representatives, sent a note to the National Agrarian Council demanding the restitution of their lands, in compliance with previous laws.

In 1946, Qulla people joined the Malón de la Paz, a march to the capital of Buenos Aires to demand the return of their lands.

[7] In August 1996, many Qulla people occupied and blocked roads to their traditional lands but were violently stopped by the police.

The use of pejorative terms likening the indigenous to lazy, idle, dirty, ignorant and savage are part of the everyday language in Argentina.