Aborigines of Magellan

• - Kawesqar or Alacalufes (Canoeists throughout the region)

• - Aoniken or Tehuelches (Strait of Magellan)

• - Selknam or Onas (Land of Fire)

• - Yaganes or Yamanes (Beagle Channel)

*** TOURISM: The presence of aborigines in southern Patagonia of Chile dates back to about 6000 to 9000 years BC. Remains were found by the North American archaeologist Junius Bird in 1930.

Visit Pali Aike National Park link: Video The Mysteries of PALI AIKE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3eYBmmQarg

The arrival of the Spanish in the Magellanic region in 1520, there lived in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego numerous tribes of indigenous people, in a primitive state, who mostly walked naked or covered with skins and used stone tools and weapons.

In Patagonia up to the Strait of Magellan, there were the Aoniken Patagones or Tehuelches , who were tall and strong individuals. They hunted using bow and arrow and were also gatherers. They traveled the pampas on horseback and protected themselves from the inclement weather by setting up camps with sticks and skins as shelters. Their limit was the Strait of Magellan, coming from the north of Argentina.

*** INFORMATION: Check out the film of the last Tehuelche or Aoniken aboriginal chief in Magallanes, Film CACIQUE MULATO, THE CHUMJALUWUN LEGEND Here . https://ondamedia.cl/show/cacique-mulato-la-leyenda-de-chumjaluwun

In Tierra del Fuego lived the Onas or Shelknam , very similar to the Tehuelches, who were also hunter-gatherers, but they built huts and sometimes dedicated themselves to fishing. They traveled only on foot, since they did not have horses or boats and they dressed in guanaco skins. This tribe was isolated from the continent when the Strait of Magellan was formed, around 10,000 years ago.

*** INFORMATION. Learn about the history of the ONAS aboriginal auction in Punta Arenas here Link. . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-Z_Yemi6k0&t=1835s

On the islands south of Tierra del Fuego, there were the Tekeenica or Yaganes , sea people who traveled in canoes through all the southern channels, between the Beagle Channel and Cape Horn. They were fishermen, hunters and gatherers. They were weak in build. They lived in tents made of sea lion skins and barely covered their nakedness. They covered their bodies with oil or grease to protect themselves from the cold.

The Kawesqar or Alacalufes lived from the southern channels to the north, up to the Gulf of Penas, and were also canoeing Indians. They covered themselves with only a wolf skin. They had customs similar to those of the Yagans, to whom they were related.

*** INFORMATION: The Kawesqar in Pages of Our History. Here link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNTID2un_MU

The Aoniken or Tehuelches and the Selknam or Onas made fire by beating pyrites and quartz. The Yagans and Kawesqar Alacalufes used wood, making the branch sprout by means of "friction." All of these aborigines are practically exterminated. There are few Tehuelches left, completely civilized in Argentine Patagonia; very few Onas in Tierra del Fuego, Yagan descendants in Puerto Williams, and around dozens of Kawesqar individuals in Puerto Edén, all of them already mixed with the Chilean people.