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Concept
Selk'nam people
Summary
The Selk'nam, 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. In the mid-19th century, there were about 4000 Selk'nam; by 1919 there were 297, and by 1930 just over 100.
They are considered extinct as a tribe. The exploration of gold and the introduction of farming in the region of Tierra del Fuego led to genocide of the Selk'nam. Joubert Yantén Gómez, a Chilean mestizo of part Selk'nam ancestry, has taught himself the language and is considered the only speaker; he uses the name Keyuk.
While the Selk'nam are closely associated with living in the northeastern area of Tierra del Fuego, 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 Selk'nam were nomadic people who relied on hunting for survival. They dressed sparingly despite the cold climate of Patagonia. They shared Tierra del Fuego with the Haush (or Manek'enk), another nomadic culture who lived in the south-eastern part of the island. Also in the region were the Yámana or Yahgan.
In Late 1599 a small Dutch fleet led by Olivier van Noort entered the Strait of Magellan and had a hostile encounter with Selk'nam which left about forty Selk'nam dead. It was the bloodiest recorded event in the strait until then.
James Cook described meeting a peoples 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.
The Selk'nam had little contact with ethnic Europeans until settlers arrived in the late 19th century.
Official source
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