Based on the analytical proposal of Michel de Certeau, this article studies the strategies deployed by Catholic missionaries in the evangelization-civilization process of Indigenous communities in Colombia (mainly in the re- gions of Caqueta and Putumayo) in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. It places special emphasis on tactics that these communities implemented by these communities in dealing with these processes. Of particular interest is the analysis concerning how two particular parallel aspects intersect and intertwine in the establishment and consolidation of Catholic missions: namely, the attempts of the National State and ecclesial institutions to expand their theaters of ac- tion, and the way that members of Indigenous communities responded to such attempts in terms of their own cultural repertoires.