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NATIVE PEOPLE
The Tehuelches, inhabitants of the Continental Patagonia, who
feed of guanaco meat and use its skin to make clothing and shoes, they
are nomads and land hunters, tall, their big footprints gave name to
"Patagonia". The Tehuelches of the North called themselves
the Günün-a-ken, and the Tehuelches of the South, Aonikenk.
The Onas (selknam) live in the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego,
called Karukinka, land hunters, they were covered with skins, they knew
weapons and tools; they were living in the forests inland of Tierra
del Fuego and were at war with their neighbours.
The Alacalufes (kaweskar), nomadic canoeists, they covered archipelagos
and western channels of the Patagonia and lived between the Golfo de
Penas, and the Strait (Magallanes). They lived on the hunting of sea
lions, seals, seafood and fish (Port Eden).
The Yámanas (yaghanes), nomadic canoeists, who lived in
the channels, between the Beagle Channel and the Cape Horn, and archipelagos
to the south of the Strait. The characteristic of these natives was,
obviously, the fire. To light it, they always carried a sachet in the
shape of saddlebag, of about 30 square centimetres with two compartments;
in one they kept a mix of swan or duck fluff and pulverized coal and,
in the other one, pieces of iron pyrite. They made a hole in the ground,
the size of a fist, putting in the bottom a layer of dry grass crushing
it, and in the centre some of the mixture of fluff and coal; obtaining
the spark by means of the shock of two iron pyrite stones. All their
life turned around the fire; it practically constituted their only coat,
except for sometimes, a skin of otter over the shoulders. Nevertheless,
they had an exclusive night heating: a great number of dogs with which
they slept crowded, in order to make use of the corporal heat of these
animals. During the day they had an ingenious way of keeping the babies
warm: they tied them to a kind of ladder constructed with branches and
fixed to the ground next to the bonfire.
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