Kawesqar

The Kawésqar are the canoe nomads of the channels of western Patagonia, between the Gulf of Penas and the Strait of Magellan. European sailors called them Alacaluf or Halakwulup, a Yahgan name meaning mussel-eater; their own name means person.

Family groups paddled canoes eight or nine metres long among the islands to fish, hunt seals and sea lions and gather shellfish. They never farmed, and kept small fires burning aboard the canoes. Their language is unrelated to the Yahgan of the channels further south.

The Spaniards of the Garcia Jofre de Loaisa expedition sighted their campfires at the western mouth of the Strait of Magellan in 1526. From the late eighteenth century British and American whalers and sealers brought trade goods and epidemic diseases that began their decline.