Their people are located on several reservations throughout the area in settlements of five to six houses. They typically name each settlement or “ranchería” a particular plant, animal, or geographical place. Each ranchería is always far apart from one another as not to interfere with goat herds between nearby neighbors.
The Spanish word ranchería, or rancherío, refers to a small, rural settlement. In the Americas the term was applied to native villages and to the workers' quarters of a ranch.[1][2] English adopted the term with both these meanings, usually to designate the residential area of a rancho in the American Southwest, housing aboriginal ranch hands and their families. The term is still used in other parts of Spanish America, for example, the Wayuu tribes in northern Colombia call their villages rancherías.