The Land of Fire

Split between Argentina and Chile, Tierra del Fuego or in English, "the land of Fire" occupies the very edge of the South American continent. Possessing incredible glaciers, unique flora and fauna, and large deposits in crude oil, natural gas, and precious minerals; the remote peninsula has long been coveted by colonizing Europeans, South American governments, and exploitative corporations.

Like the rest of the American continent, Tierra del Fuego was home to thousands of indigenous peoples before European colonization. Humans were first estimated to have settled on the peninsula in 8000 BCE; around 6000 years before Europeans reached the continent.

One such group is called the Selk'nam or Ona, who lived on the main island of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego.

The traditional lifestyle of the Selk'nam allowed the community to thrive in one of the most inhospitable climates in the world. The Selk'nam were a nomadic people, moving across Isla Grande hunting the guanco, a relative of the llama. Selk'nam lived in bands known as Haruwen, using guanco skin to built mobile teepees. The Selk'nam were able to tolerate the extreme colds with minimal clothing, by rubbing animal fat on their bodies to trap heat.

Selk'nam culture was also rich in ritual and mythology. Powerful shamans known as Xo'on, would cure diseases, appease the spirits, and conduct rites of passage. The oral tradition of the Selk'nam carried the history of the community and provided invaluable knowledge about the local geography.

Tierra Del Fuego's rugged and isolated landscape prevented widespread contact with European and later South American colonists until the 19th century.

At the time of contact with western culture, around 1880, an estimated 4,000 Selk'nam were living on Isla Grande as they had for thousands of years. 40 years later there would be only 200 left. This report documents the systematic extermination of the Selk'nam people in the late eighteenth century and the current efforts to revive a dying culture.

In the late 1800s, Argentine settlers began to push further south into Patagonia and Tierra Del Fuego to exploit the abundant grasslands for cattle and mine a variety of valuable minerals like gold and copper. This brought about widespread conflict with the native Mapuche people who attempted to halt the land's exploitation and the establishment of settler communities.

The Argentine government's response to indigenous resistance was brutal and destructive. In his Conquest of the Desert campaign, the Argentine president-general Julio Argentino Roca attempted to "civilize" the Mapuche people of the Puelmapu region, just north of Tierra Del Fuego, in an all-out campaign of extermination. This set the precedent for Argentina's future genocide against the indigenous Selk'nam.

The Selk'nam's home island of Isla Grande was the next step for Argentine exploitation. In 1879, gold was discovered in Tierra Del Fuego prompting large-scale immigration to the region. Furthermore, Argentine and European companies setup of huge sheep farms or Estancia on Isla Grande which both polluted the local water sources and disrupted the grazing of the Selk'nam's chief food source, the guanco.

The Selk'nam, having their lifestyle disrupted by the settlers, frequently stole livestock and looted Argentine settlements. In response, locals would organize 'Indian hunts' and rewards were given for every Selk'nam killed. Diseases brought by the settlers; such as smallpox, measles, and syphilis, for which the Selk'nam had no natural immunity, helped decimate the community.

However, the genocide of the Selk'nam did not being in earnest until the arrival of one man to Tierra Del Fuego, Julius Popper.

Julius Popper, known in Spanish as "Julio", was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1857 into a wealthy Jewish Family. Initially trained as a mechanical engineer, Popper traveled to Argentina in 1885, seeking fortune and riches.

In 1887, Popper received a commission from the Argentine government to lead an 18-men exploratory expedition to mine for gold on Isla Grande. Popper had complete command over his heavily armed expedition, he was in every sense a modern conquistador.

Upon the discovery of gold deposits on the island, Popper's men preceded to shoot any Selk'nam man, women, and child they came across.

For the next 5 years, Popper ruled as the virtual dictator of Tierra Del Fuego. He even minted his own currency out of the gold he mined.

Popper placed a bounty on the whole Selk'nam tribe, and rewards were given for their slaughter; with a Selk'nam hand, ear, or skull required for payment.

Julius Popper's rule in Tierra Del Fuego came to an abrupt end as he was murdered in 1893 in Buenos Aires by "men whom he offended in the south". Unfortunately, the damage to native Fuegians was nearly complete.

Ramón Lista was a native Argentine scientist from Buenos Aires, who led three separate scientific expeditions to Tierra Del Fuego.

While initially kind and friendly with the first native Aonikenk people he encountered, even writing a monograph on their language; on his later expeditions to Isla Grande he developed a deep-seated hatred of the indigenous lifestyle of the Selk'nam.

Lista and his expedition (including a chaplain) admitted to killing 26 Selk'nam in 1887. Through his scientific studies, he attempted to take measurements of their heads to prove their inferiority. He also wrote that the island was, "... inhabited by cannibal tribes that are ethnographically placed as the lowest of human beings".

In a similar fate as Julius Popper, Ramon Lista was murdered for an unknown reason while leading an expedition along the Argentine border of Brazil.

The genocide against the Selk'nam was nearly a complete and total endeavour. The last full-blooded Selk'nam and native speaker of their language, Angela Loij, died in the 1970s.

The 3,000 modern Argentines who identify as Selk'nam are of mixed ancestry and speak only Spanish. Additionally, little remains in the Argentine and Chilean historical memory of the mass atrocities committed against the native Fuegians.

While it might be easy to assume that the Selk'nam are a forgotten people, one that only now resides in museums or obscure anthropology books. In reality, the modern descendants of the Selk'nam in Argentina and Chile are active in forming cultural groups, performing traditional dances, attempting to revive their language, and advocating for proper recognition of the genocide.

 The Selk'nam  Lucca Levin

 Discussing Indigenous Genocide in Argentina: Past, Present and Consequences of Argentinean State Policies toward Native People  IAGS Journal

 Facts About The Selk'nam Genocide  The Borgen Project

 Genocide in Chile: A Monument is Not Enough  Intercontinealcry.org

 "Condemned to Disappear": Indigenous Genocide in Tierra del Fuego  Journal of Genocide Research

 Orundellico (Jemmy Button)  Cambridge University

 Selk'nam: la reaparición de un pueblo que se creía extinguido  DW

 Onas o Selk'nam  Biblioteca Nacional de Chile

 Etnocidio y resistencia de los Selk'nam en el siglo XIX  Museo Regional De Magallanes

" White on White": a glance through the lens at the genocide of the indigenous population of Tierra del Fuego  Lacrus.org

 Argentinian Founding Father Recast as Genocidal Murderer  The Guardian

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