Contemporary genocide: the systematic murder of an unique people of the far south of the Americas

Before whites began to colonize Tierra del Fuego in the nineteenth century, the indigenous population and thousands of guanaco, a small deer-like animal, roamed the 17,000 square mile island. The northern half of the island was covered with grasses, ideal for the herds of guanaco. Dense forests gave way to mountains in the southwest. On the southern coast the mountains gave way to forests and, in a narrow strip along the shore, more natural grasslands.

The island's climate was described by an early settler as 65 unpleasant days per year along with 300 days of rain and storms.

The Yahgan

The Yahgan lived along the south coast of Tierra del Fuego and on the smaller islands to the south and west. Because of their location directly on the ocean, they were probably the first people contacted by European sailors, sometime in the sixteenth century. Over the centuries, contact intensified until the late nineteenth century when, according to one traveller, rarely a day that passed when a vessel wasn't within sight of Tierra del Fuego. During Captain Cook's first voyage (1768-1771) the inhabitants of the island already had a number of European goods - sail and woolen cloth, beads, nails, and glass which was used for arrow points - presumably obtained from the numerous shipwrecks in the area.

From 1850 onward, contact intensified. Ship captains traded alcohol and trinkets for pelts, and sealers and whalers hunted along the coast. At the same time the South American Mission Society (SAMS) began its attempts to work with the Yahgan, finally establishing a permanent mission at Ushuaia in 1869.

Yahgan and Ona Indigenous Population (by year, numerous sources)

Yahgan Ona

1850 3000 3500

1868 2500 3600

1872 2000

1884 1000

1890 300 2000

1900 800

1908 600

1912 175 300

1916 100 800

Between 1863 and I870, one author estimated that half of the Yahgan population died from epidemic diseases introduced to them by sailors and sealers and indirectly via the Alakalouf who live to the northwest and traded with Europeans. From the 1870s on the number of deaths surpassed the number of births. In addition to epidemic diseases, the Yahgan suffered from syphilis, suicide, internecine murders and "hysteria." Tuberculosis and measles were both common diseases in the 1880s.

A lack of food probably caused the Yahgan to be more susceptible to diseases. The seals that they hunted were depleted by sealers who wanted only their hides. The whales that beached and were eaten by the group were more occasional than before as their population, too, was depleted by whites.