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Selkʼnam people
The Selkʼnam, also known as the Onawo or Ona people, are an Indigenous people in the Patagonian region of southern Argentina and Chile, including the Tierra del Fuego islands. They were one of the last native groups in South America to be encountered by migrant Europeans in the late 19th century.
Settlement, gold mining and farming in the region of Tierra del Fuego were followed by the Selknam genocide. In the mid-19th century, there were about 4,000 Selkʼnam; in 1916 Charles W. Furlong estimated there were about 800 Selkʼnam living in Tierra del Fuego; with Walter Gardini stating that by 1919 there were 279, and by 1930 just over 100.
In the 2017 Chilean census 1,144 people declared themselves to be Selkʼnam. However, until 2020, they were considered extinct as a people by the government in Chile, and much of the English language literature.
While the Selkʼnam are closely associated with living in the northeastern area of Tierra del Fuego archipelago, they are believed to have originated as a people on the mainland. Thousands of years ago, they migrated by canoe across the Strait of Magellan. Their territory in the early Holocene probably ranged as far as the Cerro Benítez area of the Cerro Toro mountain range in Chile.
Traditionally, the Selkʼnam were nomadic people who relied on hunting for survival, though they were also recorded as engaging in occasional fishing during low tides. They dressed sparingly despite the cold climate of Patagonia. They shared Tierra del Fuego with the Haush (Manek'enk), another related nomadic culture who lived in the south-eastern part of the island, and the Yahgan (Yámana), an unrelated group who could be found along the southern coast.
In late 1599, a small Dutch fleet led by Olivier van Noort entered the Strait of Magellan and had a hostile encounter with Selkʼnam which left about forty Selkʼnam dead. It was the bloodiest recorded event in the strait until then.
James Cook described meeting a people in Tierra del Fuego in 1769 that used pieces of glass in their arrowheads. Cook believed the glass had been a gift from the French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville, indicating potentially several early contacts. Glass arrowheads became an ever more common occurrence among the Selkʼnam as their interactions with Europeans became more common.
The Selkʼnam had little contact with ethnic Europeans until settlers arrived in the late 19th century. These newcomers developed a great part of the land of Tierra del Fuego as large estancias (ranches), depriving the natives of their ancestral hunting areas. The Selkʼnam, who did not have a concept of private property, considered the sheep herds to be game and hunted the sheep. The ranch owners regarded this as poaching, and paid armed groups or militia to hunt down and kill the Selkʼnam, in what is now called the Selknam genocide.
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Selkʼnam people
The Selkʼnam, also known as the Onawo or Ona people, are an Indigenous people in the Patagonian region of southern Argentina and Chile, including the Tierra del Fuego islands. They were one of the last native groups in South America to be encountered by migrant Europeans in the late 19th century.
Settlement, gold mining and farming in the region of Tierra del Fuego were followed by the Selknam genocide. In the mid-19th century, there were about 4,000 Selkʼnam; in 1916 Charles W. Furlong estimated there were about 800 Selkʼnam living in Tierra del Fuego; with Walter Gardini stating that by 1919 there were 279, and by 1930 just over 100.
In the 2017 Chilean census 1,144 people declared themselves to be Selkʼnam. However, until 2020, they were considered extinct as a people by the government in Chile, and much of the English language literature.
While the Selkʼnam are closely associated with living in the northeastern area of Tierra del Fuego archipelago, they are believed to have originated as a people on the mainland. Thousands of years ago, they migrated by canoe across the Strait of Magellan. Their territory in the early Holocene probably ranged as far as the Cerro Benítez area of the Cerro Toro mountain range in Chile.
Traditionally, the Selkʼnam were nomadic people who relied on hunting for survival, though they were also recorded as engaging in occasional fishing during low tides. They dressed sparingly despite the cold climate of Patagonia. They shared Tierra del Fuego with the Haush (Manek'enk), another related nomadic culture who lived in the south-eastern part of the island, and the Yahgan (Yámana), an unrelated group who could be found along the southern coast.
In late 1599, a small Dutch fleet led by Olivier van Noort entered the Strait of Magellan and had a hostile encounter with Selkʼnam which left about forty Selkʼnam dead. It was the bloodiest recorded event in the strait until then.
James Cook described meeting a people in Tierra del Fuego in 1769 that used pieces of glass in their arrowheads. Cook believed the glass had been a gift from the French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville, indicating potentially several early contacts. Glass arrowheads became an ever more common occurrence among the Selkʼnam as their interactions with Europeans became more common.
The Selkʼnam had little contact with ethnic Europeans until settlers arrived in the late 19th century. These newcomers developed a great part of the land of Tierra del Fuego as large estancias (ranches), depriving the natives of their ancestral hunting areas. The Selkʼnam, who did not have a concept of private property, considered the sheep herds to be game and hunted the sheep. The ranch owners regarded this as poaching, and paid armed groups or militia to hunt down and kill the Selkʼnam, in what is now called the Selknam genocide.