Guaiteco

The Guaiteco, better known as the Chono, were nomadic canoe people of archipelagos off southern Chile, probably Chiloé's first identifiable inhabitants, shell middens and place names marking the islands. They travelled in wooden dalca boats with dogs, men harpooning sea lions, women diving for shellfish and gathering seaweed, plus shore potatoes.

Francisco de Ulloa's fleet first met them in 1553. From the late sixteenth century Chiloé raiders hunted them for slaves, a trade given legal cover by Philip III's 1608 decree though they never rebelled. A band sought refuge in 1710 and was settled on Guar isle.

After the British warship Wager wrecked in the 1740s, the Spanish authorities emptied the Guaitecas and Chonos archipelagos to deny corsairs shelter, moving the Chono north to Chiloé, where they merged into the Williche and mestizo population; families fleeing beyond Taitao Peninsula were absorbed by the Kawésqar. By the late eighteenth century they vanished from the written record.