Chile: The People of Tierra del Fuego

Mar 30

Patagonia, and Tierra del Fuego in particular, are spectacular. However, for me what really makes a place are the people. I found the people who live on the island of Tierra del Fuego to be friendly, hospitable and very generous.

It’s the people I didn’t meet who could have taught me much more about the land than the ones I did meet. The Selk’nam people, who are also called Ona, were the original inhabitants of the Tierra del Fuego island.

The Selk’nam

Their first sight of Europeans was when Ferdinand Magellan found his strait in 1520. There was very little contact between those who sailed by and those who lived on the land until 1880. Of course, in the intervening 360 years, there had been some contact but Europeans didn’t try to live on the island until the 1880s. That’s when sheep herding companies, mostly from England, and gold miners from everywhere came to the island in force. Conflict over land and hunting rights led to a genocide which history has, until now, recorded as complete. Most history books claim that there were no Selk’nam survivors.

Today, the Chilean government is deciding what to do with a petition from the surviving descendants of the Selk’nam people. They are asking for recognition, which, if granted, could be a step in them regaining their land. If that happens, there’s no telling yet what the few people who currently live there will have to do and if they will be able to stay in their homes on what they consider to be their land.

Read my article about the Selk’nam in Fodor’s Travel.

Germán Genskowski

A self-proclaimed pioneer, Don Germán has homesteaded land where he built his own house and ranched cattle and sheep for decades. Here he stands in front of the museum he built to house historical documents of his family’s legacy on the land. If you make it as far south as Lago Fagnano, I highly recommend going to see his museum. If you plan ahead, you can reserve one of his cabins to stay in.

Hernán and Sebastian Calderón

Don Hernán lives and works at Estancia Vicuña, where he singlehandedly cares for 400 cattle and over 2,000 sheep most of the year. His grandson Sebastian lives with him, along with ten dogs to help herd the cattle and sheep.

Juan (Pechuga) Bahamondes

Pechuga, as everybody calls him, spends most of the year in a place called Caleta María, which translates to Mary’s Cove. It’s on the Almirantazgo Fjord, where Pechuga fishes and takes tourists to see the nearby elephant seals and glaciers. You can contact him for tours on his Instagram.