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.

Genocide in the far South of America

The decline of the native people of Tierra del Fuego began in the 19th century, and sadly in less than 100 years they were all but gone.  The usual culprits can be blamed – 

(1) disease brought unintentionally by the Europeans, to which the Fuegians had low immunity, 

(2) a decline in the coastal food source, as whalers and sealers decimated marine mammal populations, and 

(3) active extermination of local people, primarily by sheep ranchers who viewed them as a threat to their livestock or way of life. 

According to some sources (not including the Alacaluf ) only one full-blooded Fuegian is living today (from the Yaghan tribe), and only a few thousand people (at most) report to have native heritage in Tierra del Fuego. (RJV)

https://beagleproject.wordpress.com/2013/01/07/introducing-the-people-of-tierra-del-fuego/

Imperial powers introduced property, money and greed in native America.

The destruction of real Utopias

Danilo Anton
When Pedro Alvares Cabral and his expedition came to America in April 22, 1500, the territory that later would be called Brazil, the first European contact with the Tupi coastal towns took place. The chronicler of the expedition, Pero Vaz de Caminha, left a vivid account of his experiences in a letter to King Manoel I of Portugal where he told the monarch the unusual features of the recently contacted peoples. In that country they men and women lived naked, without shame, healthy, acting spontaneousl.. It caught the attention of Caminha that although these people had none of the European crops and animals were "... stronger and better fed than us in all wheat and vegetables we eat ...". And then: "They are very well kept and very clean and remind me that the birds and wild animals, to which the air gives better plumage and skin that domesticated. Their bodies are so clean and so beautiful fleshy and could not ask for more." Besides clean and healthy they were generally described as very friendly and hospitable.

Meanwhile, Alberico Vespucci, the famous Florentine geographer, in his letters, was astonished at the freedom and innocence in native American societies   He noted that those societies knew no private property or money, and that they shared everything in common. They lived in a complete moral and social freedom, and communities worked harmoniously without kings, religion, temples, palaces or ídols.
John Hemmings says that the enthusiasm with which the native American communities, living prosperously without kings and churches, was something subversive in absolutist European societies . In 1500, Pietro Martire d'Anghiera said that among Native Americans, "the land belongs to all, like the sun and water. Mine and yours, which are the seeds of all evil do not exist for these people. They live in a golden age, and not surrounding their properties with ditches, walls or hedges. They live in open gardens, without laws or books, no judges, and naturally seek goodness hateful considering who is corrupt himself practicing evil ".
Magalhaes of Gandavo offers the following description: "In each house they live together in harmony without dissension between them. They are so friendly with one another that what belongs to one belongs to all. When one has something to eat, no matter how little, they share all their neighbors. "
The stories of the new companies began circulating in Europe. A paradise world had been discovered where nature had not been subdued, without kings, no slavery, no poverty, no pests, where there was no money, where all women and men were free and equal.
The logic of Native Americans was rigorous. A native old man asked Count Jean de Lery , "Why do you, French and Portuguese, come so far to find wood for heating? They do not have enough wood in your country? "Lery said that the wood was used to burn but to make tinctures, like they did. The old man continued, "I guess they need lots of it ..." The French responded effectively needed much, and that a trader could buy many crowded boats, and also had a host of other goods. The old man was thinking, and thought: "this very rich man, which you tell me ... do not you die? "..." If you die like all other people. " "And when you die ... what about things that leave?" ... "It's for their children or relatives ..." said Lery. The old man thought and then declared: "Now I see that you French are big crazy. Cross the sea and suffer great inconvenience, as we are told, work very hard to accumulate wealth for your children and relatives ... Did the earth that nourishes them, not enough to feed them too ?. We have, parents, and children whom we love. But we are sure that after our death the land that nurtured us we also feed them. Therefore we need not worry. "

The first chroniclers also noted the healthy life of the American people. References abound about the longevity of Americans. According to Vespucci, came to 150 years, Pigafetta, member of the expedition of Magallanes, stated that they could live 125 to 140 years. Jean de Lery himself attributed to the Tupinambá Guanabara a life expectancy of 100-120 years. Years later Jesuit Fernao Cardim said that the population of Piratininga (Sao Paulo) was full of old people over 100 years.
From: "Amerrique, the Orphans of Paradise", Danilo Anton, Piriguazu Ediciones-

Genocide in Patagonia?

The  drama of the peoples of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego exterminated by the governments of Chile and Argentina. Their struggle, tragedy and survival.

D.Antón

Onas (Selknam), Yagan, Kawaskar and Alakaluf, were indigenous nations that inhabited the southern tip of South America and lived by fishing, hunting seals, guanacos, tucutucus and birds,

They survived in a harsh environment and developed complex cosmogonies related to the sites where they lived their existences in harmony with nature..

Their peaceful life ended in the late Nineteenth century and early Twentieth century when the governments of Chile and Argentina decided to occupy their territories.

In a few years the armies invaded, stripped them of their land, sometimes they were "hunted" like animals, a number were kidnapped and exposed in "human zoos" in Europe.

Cruelty and disregard for their basic rights has been one of the most infamous episodes that are known in the history of the colonization of America.

These operations were conducted by the governments of Argentina and Chile which today boast of their "sovereignty" over these territories.

In a few years, thousands of native people in the South were reduced to a few individuals. Healthy people were impoverished, disoriented, orphans in a land that had been theirs for thousands of years.

Oddly enough, after decades of physical and cultural aggression, there are still Selknam families, and Kawaskar families in several communities in southern Patagonia and even a few descendants of Yagans of Tierra del Fuego. They have survived despite the discriminatory policies that persist in these two countries.

Human zoos in Europe

A guarani genocide in Brazil?




An ongoing genocide, continuous cruel aggression against kaioguá-Guarani communities in 



Mato Grosso do Sul

D.Anton



The Guarani-kaoiwa village is made up of the survivors of the great Guarani nation who live  

primarily in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil. It is worth remembering that Mato Grosso is a Portuguese translation of the word Guarani "caaguasú". Originally the Guarani or Tupi-Guarani 

population including the villages of the eastern territories along the oceanic strip of South America 

were spread in thousands of communities from the Rio de la Plata to the Amazon.




After the Spanish-Portuguese invasion and conquest these numbers fell dramatically in a few years. Massacres, rapes, looting, land confiscations, spread of diseases and especially religious reductions 

destroyed most communities and restricted their survival today to a few unproductive and isolated 

plots.

One of the main surviving Guarani nations is the Guarani-Kaiowa (in Spanish, Guarani-caiguá) with a total population of 40,000 is being held in a few inadequate reserves in Mato Grosso do Sul and in

some slums around some cities. The Guarani-Kaiowa live in extreme poverty. They have a life  

expectancy of less than 40 years  lower than any independent country of the world. They have a high percentage of teen suicide that has made headlines worldwide again and again.

They are struggling with limited success to enforce their rights. As we know in Brazil and other Latin-American countries (and also in North America) there is a law for "citizens" and another one for "Indians".






I think it is worth drawing attention to this tragedy that still continues.

The historical struggles of the Guarani peoples and their resilience have been developed in the book  "Amerrique, Orphans Paraiso" of Piriguazú Editions

blog in Spanish: daniloanton.blogspot.com

Argentine conquest of the Gran Chaco: a recent genocide

D,Anton

After the establishment of the South American states, particularly Argentina and Paraguay, they succeeded the Spanish and Portuguese in their campaigns to control the Gran Chaco.

However, despite all attempts, in the early 1870s, the Chaco was still in the hands of the native nations.

The Argentine government started its campaign to conquer the territories of the Chaco nations south of the Pilcomayo in 1870 with raids under Lieutenant Colonel Manuel Obligado and Commander Luis Jorge Fontanai.

The government's stated purpose was to obtain new land for colonization and supposedly "civilizing the Indians."

The conquest was completed in 1884 by General Benjamin Victorica campaign, orchestrated in a similar manner to the one that had allowed the invasion of the Mapuche nation and pampa just five years earlier.

The tactics used by the Argentine armed forces against the Chaco warriors were not exclusively military. There are references of old settlers of Formosa, reported by Pierre Clastres and Alfred Metraux that "the Argentine army gave “generously” to native communities, clothes, sheets, blankets and mattresses used in hospitals in large cities in Argentina, for the sick with smallpox and other diseases, for which it is known that the indigenous population is very weak. An inexpensive way to germ warfare."

It should be noted that at that time the president of the Argentine republic was Julio Argentino Roca, the same general who had commanded the campaign of conquest in the south.

According to General Victorica major military targets were obtained by establishing "a military line through a chain of forts defending a rich territory of more than six thousand leagues, and that will require 15 or 20,000 male labourers, which were useless, abandoned to barbarism and robbery, to surrender to the benefits of civilization ".

Victorica continued:

"I think it will be helpful to the civilization of these tribes to promote contact with the colonies of the coast, where they will soon find work benefiting the industries that develop there. No doubt that these tribes will provide cheap labor for the sugar industry and wood mills as do some in the farms of Salta and Jujuy, but also it is considered essential to adopt an adequate system to place them permanently at convenient points, where they must occupy land with their families in order to go slowly changing their habits and civilize "iv

Chaco peoples organized by the Toba leader Juanelrai opposed facing the Argentine invasion army commanded by Captain Villanueva in the battle of t Napalpí in July 11, 1873.

The toba montoneras fought with spears, clubs and bolas against a well-armed enemy. Gradually the fight was becoming untenable for the Chaco fighters who had to withdraw in defeat leaving many corpses on the battlefield.

From the book "Ghosts of Memory". Danilo Anton, Pirigiazu Ediciones

daniloanton.blogspot.com