Selknam

The Selk'nam, also called the Ona, were nomadic hunters of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, having crossed from the Patagonian mainland over the Strait of Magellan in remote prehistory. They shared the island with the Manek'enk and the canoe-going Yahgan.

Organized in small bands without chiefs, they hunted guanacos with bows, arrows and bolas and kept Fuegian dogs for the chase and for warmth. Their Chonan language was close to Tehuelche, and the long Hain initiation tested boys through masked spirits and rites of courage.

European contact was fleeting and mostly violent: a Dutch fleet under Olivier van Noort killed some forty Selk'nam in 1599, and James Cook found glass-tipped arrows among them in 1769, gifts from Bougainville's earlier voyage. The Selk'nam remained beyond regular European reach through the early nineteenth century.