Indigenous in Tierra del fuego

Although today it is practically impossible to find an indigenous person in the Fuegian archipelago, there were four ethnic groups that occupied the entire territory. Although the settlement of the European was only in the last decades of the XIX century, in a short time it led to the extinction of the entire population.

The navigators of yesteryear gave the area a reputation for being inhospitable, where the development of human life was extremely difficult. But contrary to this first assessment, the reality is that the indigenous population was about 30 times more than in Patagonia or in the Pampean region. Both areas were true deserts until imported cattle from the Old World spread and raised wild was food for aborigines and the first European settlements.

In the Fuegian archipelago the situation was very different. The ancient settlers, possessors of a very simple culture, without knowledge of metal or ceramics, were gatherers and hunters. The region was characterized by offering them a great variety of foods and many of them very rich in calories and proteins, such as sea lions and whales; besides the guanaco, penguins and the great abundance of birds and rodents. On the other hand, they had a large quantity of fruits and wild celery, and the forests provided them with firewood and the necessary bark. The sea supplemented its diet with shellfish, seaweed, and fish. Drinking water is very abundant everywhere.

Yamanas o Yaghanes

These nomadic canoeists occupied from the north bank of the Beagle Channel to Cape Horn. Archaeological remains have been found on the Isla de los Estados and it is speculated that they have sailed to the distant Diego Ramírez islands. The occupation on the Beagle dates from about 4,000 BC.

This culture, with a great command of maritime resources, a well-adapted diet and a boat made intelligently with the precarious tools they had and with the elements that nature provided, made its irruption around that date.

Who would be the ancestors of these canoe peoples, is a difficult question to answer if you do not want to fall into the total imagination.

The "Yamanas" can be divided into four groups by presenting different dialects, but all of them have similar cultural patterns. These Fuegians were the most studied over time since the activity of Anglican missionaries was centered among them and later they were described extremely well by Father Martín Gusinde. They also aroused the attention of Europeans by the comments of the naturalist Carlos Darwin who referred to them as "subhuman beings, without spiritual life" or as Darapsky stated: "the smallest race of the human race."

One of the aspects that attracted the most attention was that they practically lived naked, some used a cover-up and sometimes wore a sea lion leather placed on the body covering the side from which the wind came. They moved quite continuously with their canoe from one point to another carrying the whole family, dog, utensils, weapons, some food and even the fire in the center of the canoe. This was extremely careful since it was not safe to relight a fire in the new location of his hut if they found the wet wood. Some authors maintain that they carried the fire to warm themselves while they were sailing and to eat a bite to eat; It clearly shows that those who wrote that know little about nautical.

Their physical build made them very different from the Selk'nam (their northern neighbors) and although they were strong and well muscled, their height did not exceed 1.60 meters, in the case of men, and their legs were somewhat weak. compared to the rest of the body. All of this made them look unbalanced in the eyes of the European, and in itself made them more like the shape of a developed ape than a man.

They had a bow and arrow but for the hunting that they carried out, the harpoon rendered them more useful. Both for hunting sea lions, with a detachable tip joined by a finger, and for hunting guanacos that consisted of fixed-point harpoons. They also used simple clubs to hunt penguins and sea lions on the coast. They used slings and ropes to catch birds. The fishing was carried out with a line, devoid of hook, and bait at the end. The biting fish was quickly pulled out of the water and taken by hand.

To extract spider crabs and bivalves they had long forks of two and three points and from the canoe they were dedicated to this task. The difference in tides and the rocky shoreline make harvesting shellfish a simple task. The fragile and simple canoe to the eyes of the uninformed in the matter may resemble a basket full of branches or think that it was a frame lined with bark. There is nothing further from the truth. In a work carried out in 1989 where we reconstructed the first reconstruction of a Yamana bark canoe based on ethno-historical data, the conclusions we reached, after building the canoe and navigating it, were very different. A description of the famous Weddell navigator was taken as a basis, leaving aside the appraisals of inexperienced people such as Darwin or those who were not sailors in general. Thanks to them we were able to rebuild a boat that, although it begins with a type of construction "outside-inside" (first the bark and then the frame), the branches and structure that is placed inside give the boat a great solidity with virtue of being able to absorb sudden blows.

Although it is true that the bark is fragile, the treatment given by them compares it to the best marine plywood provided by nature. Its caulking with algae, moss, clay and even grease, makes the seams practically waterproof. The whale beard and sea lion leather in tientos solved their sewing problems and the reed braids replaced the ropes, both for anchoring and for mooring near the coast on the algae.

Its paddle-shaped paddle is perfect for paddling over the large banks of algae (cachi yuyos) that surround the coast or are in the shallows. In itself, the tests carried out showed that the navigation on these algae was perfect, the canoe sliding on calm waters and giving the oar a greater thrust without getting caught given its shape. The speeds we reached were 5/7 knots and it was impossible for us to advance with a headwind. With wind to length, from stern or across, blow it was necessary to row from one side with widely spaced strokes, leaving the sword as the rudder. This produces a serene navigation with high chances of approaching prey in the water.

Without wishing to tire the reader, we can affirm that it was not a simple canoe but the best boat that could have been built without knowing the metal and using the elements given by nature. Monoxyla canoes, made of boards and rafts, built with the introduction of the ax by the European, far from being an advance, were the first visible signs of the decline of a people. The situation was different with their neighbors "Halakwulup" who began to use the canoe of boards, as in the tradition of the Chonos.

In our case, the Know-How was left in Ushuaia so that later secondary school students, guided by an artisan who collaborated with us, would build a second canoe and we hope that others will follow to be able to understand more about a disappeared town and the I recover from a forgotten tradition. Regarding their way of life, it was common for them to marry young and at that moment of gaining independence they would build their first canoe, helped by the rest of the family group, the size of their needs. As the family grew larger, either by children or by a second wife, the canoe was built larger. As for family life, bigamy and even polygamy were normal. Many times it was a widowed relative or the wife's sister or an older woman who gave wise advice.

With nomadic habits, two or three families used to meet and on certain occasions, such as the stranding of a whale, several more but this was only circumstantial. The houses of branches and sticks were built quickly and took a conical or domed shape. They covered the largest wind inlets with hides and pieces of bark. After a few days, when the pile of debris was large, they would abandon it. Nature was responsible for degrading the remains of food, and the hut was suitable for a new occupation. These sites were called concheros since from the door of the huts or under the overhangs of the cliffs a large number of cholgas and mussel shells accumulated that they consumed as a complementary diet. It was because of these high concentrations of shells that they were initially thought to only consume shellfish. The Yamanas had "shamans" (doctor-sorcerers) with supernatural gifts. They could control the weather, talk to the spirits, heal, kill, get food, ultimately the control of good and evil in the eternal duality of "shamans"; they were good and bad according to the moment. That degree was reached according to age and prestige was very important.

They had different ceremonies, the main ones being the "shiehaus", which adolescents of both sexes had to go through to become adults, and the "kina" reserved for men, where they were later considered men. The songs were monotonous and the dances too. They adorned themselves with necklaces and used red, white and black paint, depending on the occasions. All of these points had important symbolic meanings. When someone died he was buried or burned and immediately the place was abandoned and not named again. There have been no proven cases of cannibalism but it is known that the fox was not consumed because it was a carrion eater, it even dug up the dead.

Fights with other dialect groups existed and revenge worked if any member of the family was injured or killed by strangers; this could be pending for a long time until it was achieved. It is interesting to see the censuses of the Yamana people: According to Thomas Bridges in 1884 he had counted about 1,000 Indians of which 213 were men, 314 women and 413 children. This includes the entire region and estimated, in turn, that the total population by mid-century could have been around 3,000. The epidemics began with the settlement of the first Europeans long before 1884. More interesting is the figure given for a few months after, after a measles epidemic between October and December 1884, half died. For 1886 the census carried out by Bridges is of 397 people. This is one of the reasons why he decides to stop serving as a missionary.

In 1897, a census was carried out in the Municipality of Ushuaia that gave the number 110. For Reverend Lawrence the number did not exceed 100 in 1913. Father Gusinde estimated the population at 50 for 1945 and our Indigenous Census of 1966, gives the figure of "2". The reasons may be many, but the conclusion only one: the total incompatibility of Yamana with European "civilization". What almost does not occur in any region of the world today can be found in Tierra del Fuego: uninhabited places that, occupied by the primitive Fuegians, were evicted by the Europeans and then abandoned because they could not adapt to them. Cases such as the Miter Peninsula and hundreds of desert islands with archaeological remains on the ground, clearly show us that they did know how to live on them.

HALAKWULUP o Alacalufes

The canoeists of the Strait of Magellan and the intricate labyrinth of islands to the north and the infinity of channels to the south, were neighbors of the Chonos (to the north) and the Yamanas to the south. They had a certain relationship with both and the transmission of nautical knowledge between them is likely.

In this regard, without a doubt, the Chonos (from the Guaitecas archipelago) were the most advanced and it is very likely that they have transmitted construction techniques to their neighbors.

These in turn had to adapt them to the environment in which they had to navigate and live. Let us consider that it is not the same to navigate through areas such as the Strait of Magellan to the archipelago of Las Guaitecas and much less to the archipelago of Cape Horn.

On the other hand, the materials that nature provided to each group had their differences, both in the variety of trees and their development (towards the south it is less), and the boats had to adapt to them.

The Chonos managed to make boats with stitched boards, the Alacalufes made of stitched bark, being large and after the arrival of the European (1,500) they applied a sail; the Yamanas with minor crusts and without the use of a candle. According to scholars of the subject, the point of contact between the Yamanas and the Halakwulup was the Brecknok Peninsula and the entire northwestern arm of the Beagle Channel itself. Apparently it was normal for mixed marriages to take place although both peoples had their own languages ​​well differentiated. On the other hand, this town can be divided into three dialect groups: those of the southern, central and northern region.

Their habits were clearly coastal, like the Yamanas, since the territory they inhabited was covered by glaciers or steep mountains, except for the coastline. The food and way of obtaining it was similar to that of the other canoeists and in general terms their religious rites presented great similarities.

According to Reverend Martín Gusinde these secret ceremonies and mask dances were transmitted to the canoe Indians by the Selk'nam. Among the "Halakwulup" they built a special hut that was the meeting point of the "spirits". The ceremony was named after the great hut: "Jencex wa". It did not have a pre-established periodicity, nor did it have a precise duration. It was carried out on a beach that, in addition to providing a large space, was near a forest, to obtain firewood, and provided that abundant food was available. It could even be a whale beached nearby. The conduction of the ceremony fell to an old man who was the one who established the place and shape of the hut; This could be domed or conical in shape. They also built a kitchen hut for the women. This was separated about 200 Mts. of which men occupied. Following this, after decorating the huts by painting them inside, they made different types of masks for the "spirits" and feather necklaces with bark. The bodies and masks were painted white and red, fixing the pigment with fish oil.

The origin of this ceremony is referred to very distant times when women exercised power and dictated all the tasks of men. After a great dispute between "Sun Man" and "Moon Woman", husband and wife, the men took power when they discovered the deception of women about the ceremony and the spirits. The men killed those women who cheated on them and "Sun man" began to persecute "Moon woman". They both went to heaven, continuing this persecution today. When taking power, the men had to perform the ceremony in such a way that the women could not recognize the spirits-men and discover the deception. At this party, adolescents were told the anti-feminine secrets and how society had been until men had power. They were introduced to the knowledge of the present organization of the community and what their duties were as adult members of the ethnic group. To participate in this ceremony, the men had to have undergone an educational course prior to what they called "kálakai". Each adult initiated an adolescent, momentarily became a tutor and teacher of the participant who had passed the previous course.

Medicine

Nature offered the indigenous few elements for cures. They used wolf oil in a special way for all kinds of conditions. They massaged the affected part with said oil, for stomach pains they ingested it but the truth is that generally they smeared the whole body with oil, which protected them from the inclement weather. With hot stones they tried to mitigate the pain, applying them to the affected part. It was customary for them to bleed themselves so that the contaminated blood would come out. With the knife they made an incision and this they repeated until they healed; so a chronically ill person was full of scars.

The true infectious and venereal diseases arrived with the European and against them they had no cures. A custom they had (remedy) was that for body pain, headache or stomach pain, they smeared the body with pinniped oil and they lay down covering themselves with various skins. When the pain did not stop for several days or in worst cases it increased, it arose in the individual that it was a punishment from beyond and for which there was no remedy.

Arrival of the European

Of all the groups, it was the Fuegians who had the most contact with Europeans from the first encounters to the present. We found data such as that of a man who in his bark canoe (3 meters long) went from Dawson Island, where the Salesiana reduction was, to Punta Arenas (crossing the Strait of Magellan) in search of his son kidnapped by whalers. This happened in 1903, he found his son and the canoe can be seen in the Salesian Museum of Punta Arenas, which was already a thriving city with large mansions, theater, important societies, schools and churches.

A 1973 census gives a population of 47 alacalufes in Puerto Edén and three in Seno Skyring, although many of them are mestizo.

SELK'NAM u Onas

Very different from their neighboring canoeists, they are related to the Tehuelches, inhabitants of Patagonia. They were of great physical build, with a haughty presence and tireless runners.

They based their subsistence on hunting the guanaco, which they did with the help of their dogs and the skillful handling of the bow and arrow.

They also consumed the marine mammals that stranded on the coasts and the "tucu tucu" (typical rodent from the north of the Big Island of Tierra del Fuego). To hunt them they jumped over their burrows until they were crushed to death. Fishing was practiced only in cases where the fish were trapped in natural pools at low tide. In the same way they collected mollusks. They supplemented their diet with mushrooms, wild celery, different types of berries, eggs, and birds.

The climate in the Tierra del Fuego steppe is much harsher than in the canals. They wore long "quillangos" made with guanaco skin (they could also be fox or sea lion) and wore leather moccasins. The leathers were also used as for the winds of their temporary shelters (tolderías). Near the woods they armed with sticks and skins a tent that somewhat resembled the "tipi" of the North American Indians.

With nomadic customs, they moved through the vast territory in search of their favorite food: the guanaco. In fact, they did it within their territory ("haruwen") since each group had their land. They did not stay more than 7 to 10 days in each place and moved as a family. In this pilgrimage the woman carried the babies in a kind of cradle and they also carried sticks and skins to improvise the shelters.

With its own rich language, it was very different from that of the Haush, but it was similar to the southern Tehuelches. Not as extensive a vocabulary has been collected as the work done by Thomas Bridges with the Yamanas, but quite a bit could still be compiled. The same did not happen with the Haush of which there are only a few loose words.

In addition to their territory, the Selk'nam belonged to a section that corresponded to one of the following cardinal points: north, west and south. This "sky" or sector was that of the father and was inherited by the family. It was important in marriage cases because a woman could only marry men from another "heaven" (as if they were clans). Of patriarchal order, the woman had to respond as a submissive wife. Within their society there were men who acquired great prestige, such as those who were skilled warriors or athletes, and also those who excelled in their crafts, including basketry in the case of women.

The "shamans" were feared and respected. On the other hand, the respect that was had for the wise men, who were consulted for making all decisions, was different, as was the figure of the prophets. When the European arrived to settle in the area (1880) he did so followed by the Salesian fathers who in the Rio Grande region established their reduction to "civilize" the Indians, for which he had a great relationship with them. Although they were highly criticized, they tried to do everything possible to save them from the new owners of the lands and teach them the "civilized" rules of life.

Until 1930 they celebrated the "Hain" (in some works it was designated as "kloketen") which was a ceremony to initiate young people. From that moment they were considered adults. In addition to singing, the women participated in the ceremony as an audience, with the men actively presenting themselves painted and wearing masks.

They represented different divinities from their mythology and the "public" was surprised by participating in the ceremony in this way. The duration of this rite was apparently very variable and was performed without a set frequency.

With the arrival of the European began a rapid extinction. It was estimated that the population was approximately 3,500 people but thanks to the diseases brought on the boats, the massacres of the new owners of the lands and the internal wars themselves that led to the reduction of the territory through which they traveled in search of food (imposed by the fences of the ranchers), made this culture disappear. Some descendants remain but already assimilated to the imported culture.

The French ethnographer Anne Chapman made a series of recordings on songs of the "Selk'nam" that were published by Folkways Records and that we were able to listen to at the Museum of Sound in London. The Selk'nam did not develop musical instruments, so these songs do not have musical accompaniment. The vocalization of sounds is striking and is especially interesting because it is a form of artistic expression of a hunter-gatherer culture. The recorded songs are Shamanic, of Mourning and some of them are already from the time when they were reduced in the Salesian Mission. From the work compiled by Anne Chapman we extract a comment from the "Indian" Luis Garibaldi (his family was from the Cabo San Diego area, therefore Haush), referring to some ranchers of European origin: "... They educated some Indians, educate in the sense of work, give love to work, to money, in short. There the Indian, in principle, the one who wanted to work worked, the one who did not, did not work. it was easy to educate them. "

With regard to generalized killings of Indians, there are no precise data. Yes, some somewhat tricky photos and a few comments but they do not say about numbers, although some methods do. Again from the same work we can read the comment of a descendant of "Selk'nam", Federico Echeuline: "... They killed because it suited them, because they paid them pound sterling for each head and the woman cut off her breasts ... ". Luis Garibaldi adds: "... Lucas Bridges says that he invited Chancho Colorado (administrator of the Menéndez family) to see if he could civilize the Indians, that it was better to civilize them, that they could be useful for the work of the cattle establishment and the Pig Colorado told him no, it was a lot of annoyance, because to civilize, first you have to maintain them and then you have to dress them and you have to educate them; it is better to put a bullet in them, the story ends right away.

Cabo Peñas is the one in front of where the lighthouse is. It is a cape that moves a lot and there is a rest for wolves, because it is very displaced and there is a lot of feeding at low tide. There are fish and shellfish, of many kinds. People went down to the lake (Fagnano) to shellfish and hunt wolves. Because there was the wolf rest. Then the Colorado Pig once put some sentries armed with Winchester, about three four men, three on one side, three on the other side of the cape. When the high tide came to rise, in a part of the cliff of the cape they were squeezing them as the tide rose, they were squeezing them and whoever wanted to pass to the side of the people, they put a bullet ... so the people, women and children, crowded where the cliff was and there they drowned all ... ".

Although accuracy or objectivity is relative, that's how they understood what happened to them. In one of the parts they refer to the missionaries and how they were taken to the reductions: "... Then they were guarded with the police and the army, in some corral made of wood and wire. After that they handed him over to Monsignor Fagnano so that he would send them to Dawson Island where he had the mission, which they exploited on the island, with sawmill and sheep. (It was) a concession that Fagnano had from the Chilean Government. They have taken quantities of Indians there, more than three thousand Indians . "What did they do to the Indians? Did they make sausages or what? In twenty years there can't have been a lot of Indians out of disease or something like that. Some have to save themselves. When they handed over Dawson Island, after twenty one. Years of exploiting it, they brought a few Indians here (to the mission near Río Grande). But Onas only three women came: Paula, Raquel and Petronila. They were the only ones who came here, men did not come. "

Elsewhere, he continues: "... Right here in the Candelaria Mission (that of Río Grande) some Indians from abroad came to take refuge there, but they lived for a short time, they died immediately. This is what I don't know, what I don't know. I can explain myself. Many times I have meditated on this point and have not reached any conclusion. " They died long ago, unable to find an answer. "The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind."

HAUSH

Its population was estimated at a few hundred and so far its culture is not very well known. According to ethno-historical data, they had similar characteristics to their western neighbors (pedestrian hunters) and to the southern canoeists.

The ancestors of this group are not very precise and the different authors have different theories, some of them even affirm that they are the oldest inhabitants of the territory pushed by the Yamanas and the Selk'nam; these in turn were displaced by others and so on.

The truth is that they did not have good relations with their neighbors and they fed on both guanaco hunting and marine mammals. With their own language they had, as is logical to think, some terms similar to those of their neighbors. The Selk'nam considered them their ancestors and were the holders of the spiritual knowledge of both peoples. They kept the beliefs and rites in force. On many occasions the later Selk'nam referred to them as sources of such knowledge. They did not live totally isolated; in the frequent fights the victors took the wives of the vanquished and, without intending to, became related.

Meeting of two cultures

They were among the first to come into contact with European sailors, and these encounters occurred in Bahía Thetis, Bahía Buen Suceso and in the successive shipwrecks along the coast of the Miter Peninsula. Some were peaceful encounters while others ended in real massacres, at the beginning, on both sides, although later they led to the loss of the indigenous people. So much was the fear that when they saw a ship on the horizon they would disappear from the coast since they often became targets for target practice for bored sailors.

CHONOS

Towards the north and on the Pacific coast we find the Chonos as neighbors of the "Halakwulup" (Alacaluf). The knowledge that is had of this group is quite little. Their number, upon the arrival of the European, is estimated at about 1,000 individuals.

Apparently they were of similar cultural traits to their southern neighbors, with similar subsistence patterns, social organization, beliefs and religious practices.

They inhabited the territory between the Guaitecas Islands and the Taitao Peninsula, the Gulf of Peñas and the Guayanecos Islands (from the south of Chiloé Island to the Taitao Peninsula where the Alacalufes ("Halakwulup") territory began; 43 ° 30'S a about 47 ° S). Although they were nomads and based their diet on hunting sea lions, fishing and collecting shellfish, they owned a canoe made with three to five boards sewn together: the "Dalca".

To give us an idea of ​​the place they inhabited, let's think that there are around 1047 islands forming a true labyrinth of channels, islets and islands, today most of them uninhabited.

They buried their dead under rocky eaves or caverns, but the information itself comes to us through brief comments from sailors and travelers who passed through the area.

According to the data provided by the Ladrillero expedition (1557-58), it tells us about a town dressed in wool or bark fiber; fishermen and gatherers; They grew a variety of potatoes and planted "corn" (in the Guaitecas Islands) in addition to owning animals such as a variety of very woolly dogs from which they obtained the hair for the brief layers that only covered the shoulders and part of the back. . Most likely, it was made of "guanaco" wool and the sex cover they used was made of dried seaweed. From the expedition of F. de Ulloa we get interesting data such as the use of wooden hooks, bark fiber nets, spears, clubs, bone daggers and tree bark huts. They also comment on the women diving to collect shellfish.

As for his boat, the "Dalca", it was made with larch boards. This tree, straight and large, has longitudinal fibers that allowed them to obtain the boards of the appropriate thickness thanks to the particularity with which the wood splits. By nailing wedges, a longitudinal split is obtained, obtaining, in the second repetition of the procedure, a plank the width of the tree. This is how with three boards, the longest central one, and the help of fire, they shaped the bow (stem) and stern (codaste) by raising the central board. Also with the help of fire they bent the side boards and making holes they sewed them with wicker, sea lion skin tientos, whale baleen or reeds, it depends on the different authors. As for the number of boards, it can basically be said that there were three to which the freeboard was increased with two boards on the sides. Thus, canoes of three, five and even seven boards were seen.

The Dalca that is on display at the Ethnographic Museum of Sweden has a length of 4.26 meters, a beam of 101.6 cm and a prop of 50.8 cm. It is cooked with wicker and reeds, caulked with larch tow (larch bark ground between two stones). Found in 1910 by Prof. Carl Skottsberg's Swedish expedition, it is an excellent example of the boat they used. The fact of finding it south of the Gulf of Peñas shows the migration undertaken by the "Chonos" leaving their territory and the late incorporation by the "Halakwulup" of a more sophisticated vessel. Without ever abandoning their bark canoes. Although the different navigators provide us with data of larger sizes, this shows us that the realization of one of these boats was not given by strict canons of measurements but that each artisan-sailor did what he could according to the ability and needs he had; as for example: number of which the family nucleus was composed.

In the description of the Jesuit chronicler Diego de Rosales (1877) in his book Historia del Reino de Chile, he refers to a crew composed of a helmsman and eight to ten rowers while some other crew member was shrinking. As for her seafaring capacity, she comments: "... When there is a favorable wind, they tend a sail, and sail and oar flies over the foam, without being offended by the swollen waves of those stormy seas, no matter how much they rise to the clouds, that since it is so light and the pilots are careful to straighten the bow to collide with the waves, they are far from engulfing it with its swelling and offending it with its fierceness, ... "(sic).

He clearly shows us the type of boat totally adapted to the environment, in addition to the excellent sailors that they were. It is worth clarifying that the plank canoe that the "Yamanas" came to build has nothing to do with the Dalca, nor should it be understood as a transmission of knowledge to that region since it was essential to have other vegetation (there is no larch in the southern Fueguino and the existing wood is not suitable for building in the Chonos style, according to the tests we carried out).

Meeting with the European

The Spanish came into contact with the Chonos, first sporadically through voyages of exploration (1553) and, from the founding of Castro on the Island of Chiloé (1567), it was in an almost continuous way as they inhabited the navigated region. for the Spanish. Thus, their disappearance is due to direct contact with them, that is to say, diseases and fights, and a little because they moved in search of other territories. Some went north to mix with the "Mapuches" of Chiloé and others moved south to the Gulf of Peñas where they joined the "Halakwulup" (Alacalufes) and it is due to this migration that the latter learned to build board boats. .

As for the rudimentary sail that they used (cuadra de skins), it is not known since when they used it but it is very likely that it was an incorporation after the arrival of the Spaniards.

CHILOTES

On the Island of Chiloé, towards the north of the Chonos territory, we find an insular culture with several centuries of development from ethnic groups such as the Huilliches, Chonos and Cuncos. In the 16th century the Spanish arrived and from that contact a new culture was formed.

This culture has a series of peculiarities where magic and mythology encompass a large part of the life of the islanders, giving the area a special golden hue. In itself there was no contact with the Fuegians, except for the aforementioned of the Chonos. The three-plank vessel (the Dalca) was found by the expedition of Cortés Hojea (1557-1558) north of the Island of Chiloé, more precisely in the Gulf of Coronados. His chronicler comments that they saw a large number of three-plank canoes used by Araucanian-speaking natives in said gulf.

Although they were not exactly like the Chonos, the reality is that they began to differentiate themselves by leaps and bounds from the rest of the natives of the area with the arrival of the Spanish, when a very particular culture was formed that was called "the culture of wood. "

From there came the chilotes that made the area famous. Both for their skill as carpenters and great sailors with their Chiloé boats, as well as for the "Pincoya", the "Trauco", the "Caleuche", etc.

PEHUELCHES, navigators of the Andes

These inhabitants of the lake region of Patagonia were baptized with that name by their neighbors, the Araucanians.

In their language it means "men of the east". The "Tehuelches" lived south of the Limay River (they were also known as "Poyas") and were clearly steppe hunters. On the contrary, in relation to the "Pehuelches" skeletal remains of fish were found.

These lake navigators inhabited Victoria Island, in Lake Nahuel Huapi (since the beginning of the Christian era), leaving several sites with rock art closely linked to the culture of the "Tehuelches".

It is evident, and in fact there is evidence, that primitive navigation existed in the lakes and it is probable, according to the evidence being investigated, it is that it was a transmission of ethnic groups accustomed to a marine environment, such as the "Chonos" and in general the "Fueguinos", that the first "Pehuelches" began to navigate.

The contact with their neighbors the "southern Araucanians" was assiduous and they must have brought pottery from them. In the same way, they continued contact with the hunters of the steppe.

In the region of the lakes, several monoxy canoes were found, as well as the remains of other vessels such as the "Dalcas". Not only used by the natives but both by the Jesuit fathers and by the first settlers of the region. La Dalca had the virtue that could be unleashed to take it unarmed through isthmus and avoid dangerous or long navigations.

TEHUELCHES

To the north of the Strait of Magellan, in the territory commonly called Patagonia, it was occupied before the arrival of the Europeans by an ethnic group that is supposed to be the current descendants of the ancestors of the "Selk'nam".

They are the "Meridional Tehuelches" (or "AONIKENK" as they called themselves). The area occupied was from the Santa Cruz River to the Strait of Magellan. North of the Santa Cruz River, Patagonia was occupied by the "Tehuelches Septentrionales".

We can say that they were practically two sister peoples and the contacts between them were very frequent and they even made expeditions to the Río Negro together. They also maintained contact with peoples in more northern regions.

Patagonia was occupied for about 11,000 years, according to data provided by archeology. This happened after the ice was removed and allowed life to develop. Apparently a group of these men populated the steppe of Tierra del Fuego and over the centuries they formed two different cultural groups: the "Selk'nam" of Tierra del Fuego and the "Tehuelches" of southern Patagonia.

As these were peoples who did not use the canoe, it is assumed that they entered by land passes that skirted ancient lakes of glacial origin before the Strait of Magellan opens, joining both Oceans (perhaps through the First Narrow or the Second?).

South Patagonia presents a plain with steppe vegetation from the sea to the mountains. In the Andes, the climate changes allowing large wooded areas with a totally different rainfall regime. The characteristics of the Tehuelches bear similarities to the Selk'nam. They were nomads, hunters and gatherers. The guanaco was one of their favorite prey for its meat, bones to make tools and ornaments, for its skin, and it also participated in various ritual ceremonies.

Other animals that were hunted were: fox, puma, skunk and rhea. The latter was hunted with the boleadoras. This weapon was developed for centuries and they were very skilled in its use. On the other hand, it is very useful in desert places such as the Patagonian steppe. They had different types of boleadoras with stones of different sizes. They also used them for hunting birds.

From all these animals they obtained a precious element: the skin. With her they made the famous "Quillangos". Unlike the "Fuegians" they wore their hair inwards and on the outside they were drawn with geometric motifs and painted in red, black and green. From the rhea they used their feathers to make ornaments.

The house was made with a frame of sticks covered by skins. Commonly called "toldo", hence the word "tolderías" used when referring to a group of tehuelches settled in some place momentarily (camp), its real name was "kan".

The scarcity of trees in the pampas made the straight poles of the frame to assemble a "kan" a very precious commodity. They always traveled with them and were transmitted from father to son. To obtain them, they had to reach the foothills where the forests began.

The elders were highly respected because it was considered that they were the possessors of knowledge and were in charge of enforcing traditions as well as social behavior. They had an important contact with the "Mapuches" and they greatly appreciated the silverware they possessed.

Meeting with the European

The Tehuelches were the first southern Indians to come into contact with Europeans. From Magellan onwards, varying the frequency, the relationship with the European was at times peaceful and at times bellicose. Among the most important points of this "meeting with the discoverers" was the adoption of the horse during the 18th century. This allowed him to carry out hunting trips with a greater range, as well as avoiding the constant pilgrimage through the region with the whole family. They also continued with their nomadic way of life. Then they began to carve arrowheads from pieces of glass and in that way they began to incorporate elements of the Spanish, such as iron to make knives that in a certain way replaced scrapers.

With the capture of the Strait of Magellan by the Chileans and the subsequent founding of Punta Arenas, the Tehuelche received the benefits of the settlers: alcohol and diseases to which they were not used. By 1905 there were no more Tehuelches in the vicinity of the Strait. This was due to the emigration that took place towards northern lands due to the indigenous people's own will and because the new owners of the lands put a price on their heads. Modern colonization needed their lands to develop pastoral activity.

According to the journalist Payró (1899), in the Punta Arenas region, large families paid up to 2 pounds per ear. The defenders of these killings explained in their books and publications that the settlers had to defend their herds with weapons (according to Braun Menéndez), forgetting that the lands that were taken from them were where they found their game, that is: the guanaco.

But they were not only shot dead, but so that they would learn not to eat sheep they put strychnine in their guts. This is how the poor starving Indians had a good binge on poisoned meat. Procedure that if applied to dogs was considered inhumane treatment.

Not only the first settlers and ranchers were responsible for the deaths, but, as Gusinde affirms, the ships that sailed the strait were targeted with the Alacalufes.

In many published works there is talk of deportation or transfer to other regions. There are several cases, such as the Yamanas brought to the Malvinas by Anglican missionaries, or those brought to England by Fitz Roy. Others were deported to Chubut and Río Negro. The Chileans sent some 165 to Punta Arenas, but this does not explain the disappearance of more than 6,000 Fuegians. Without the number of missing Tehuelches being reliably known.