Yaghan people
The root of the Yámana (also: Yagan or Yaghan, the living by the descendants themselves preferred because gender-neutral name) is one of the four ethnic groups that settled until the early 20th century to Tierra del Fuego. Like the other natives of Tierra del Fuego, they were almost completely wiped out in the course of colonization by white settlers early 20th century.
History
The Yámana settled as sea nomads along the Beagle Channel and the adjacent channels of the Brecknock Peninsula to the Wollaston Islands at Cape Horn. Similar to the Kawesqar was for them the canoe center of life: in them the families transported their possessions, as a fire pit from a resting place was taken away to the other. These canoes were produced from the bark of the tree lenga ( Nothofagus pumilio ). When they camped on land that Yámana lived in low huts, which were made of tree branches. Depending on the season these cottages changed due to the different weather their mold. For centuries the Yámana camped at preferred places which were surrounded by mountains of broken shells. While the men were responsible for hunting, the women appeared in the icy water for clams and crabs.
The first Europeans who came across the Yámana, were the sailors of a Dutch expedition, which appeared in 1624 near Cape Horn, but only with the advent of fast sailing and whaling end of the 18th century there were regular contacts between Europeans and the Yámana. In Europe known were those four Yámana who were deported during the expedition of Parker King and Robert FitzRoy in the first half of the 19th century in England, as Jemmy Button, Fuegia Basket, Boat Memory and York Minster.
Only in the second half of the 18th century there was regular contact, such as through the missionary efforts of the South American Missionary Society. Upon arrival of the first settlers in 1884 but broke out a measles epidemic that killed nearly half of the total estimated 1000 people Yámana. Similarly, the Indians ceded by missionaries, especially the South American Missionary Society, from 1887 also the Congregation of the Salesians of Don Bosco's clothing contributed to the spread of the epidemic. The now forced sedentary lifestyle and a change of diet ( mainly from animal fats to vegetable products) exacerbated the poor health of the survivors ( scrofula, pneumonia, and tuberculosis). In 1911, therefore only lived around 100 Yámana. The last Yámana that still used the original lifestyle, died in 1983.
Today live offspring from five different tribal mothers and fathers - in Ukika or Puerto Williams, which are linked by marriage with different cultural backgrounds. The language dominates in limited circumstances, in addition to the well-known representative Cristina Calderón ( * ca 1938) also Patricio Chiguay Calderón.
Genocide of the Yámana
* Compiled from: Chatwin / Theroux: reunion with Patagonia. In 1985.