Tshon

The Tshon group takes its name from the Chonan languages of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, whose name comes from the Selk'nam word for man. It covers the Tehuelche, or Aonikenk, of the Patagonian steppe, the Selk'nam of northeastern Tierra del Fuego, the Teushen, and the Gununa Kune and Querandi of the Pampas.

Ferdinand Magellan's men met the Tehuelche at San Julian in 1520 and called them Patagones. In 1536 the Querandi routed a Spanish force sent from Pedro de Mendoza's new Buenos Aires with their bolas, and after the Spaniards abandoned their livestock they took to horses. Olivier van Noort's Dutch fleet fought the Selk'nam in the Strait of Magellan in 1599, leaving about forty dead.