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This thesis examines the process of economic and human development in two indigenous communities in northern Argentina. It specifically considers the role of small Catholic non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in these communities. With the idea that the process of economic and human development is never a politically neutral, technological procedure, but a process of social change, it discusses the role of discourse. The thesis considers the factors that influence how these small NGOs view themselves and their role in the community and choose what projects to initiate. It finds that these NGOs employ a specifically religious idiom of development that sets them apart from other kinds of development organizations in the ways in which they define their mission and in the types of projects they are willing to consider. Based on the author's field research in Kolla and Wichi communities, the study also considers local response to the NGOs and how local people view "development" for themselves and their communities. / In order to explore these issues, the process of land claims in each community is considered in depth. Land ownership is seen by the NGOs and the communities themselves as a critical component of locally-empowered development. The ways in which these indigenous communities understand their relationship to the land which they occupy is explored. This relationship tends to be accentuated in land claims cases.