People of the Land of Fire

When we arrived in Ushuaia, Argentina, I wanted to learn about the people who lived on Tierra del Fuego. I read all I could about the Fuegans in the Italian Guide, but it wasn't much. (The Italian Guide is what everyone calls Rolfo and Ardrizzi's book, Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, A Nautical Guide. It has a tremendous amount of information about these areas and sailing through them.) After a few days of epic shopping in Ushuaia, we finally got to go to a museum about the history of the natives. Learning about the natives here intrigued me so I decided to write a blog to share some of what I have learned.

25,000 years ago, the channels where we were currently cruising were not yet channels but were flat plains buried more than four thousand feet below the surface of a solid glacier. Slowly the glaciers retreated, carving the beautiful valleys and fjords between the jagged peaks. Meanwhile, plants were finding their way here. Soon after, animals flocked to this new land. Guanaco (small mammals, sort of like llamas), foxes, birds of all sorts, sea lions, penguins, and a variety of small mammals found their way here and adapted to this cold harsh land. Only reptiles and amphibians failed to make it to the newly revealed island, later to be called Tierra del Fuego.

People soon followed the animals south, both literally and figuratively. Families of Patagons discovered the new, untouched place. They were called Patagons, because the word meant "big-footed-people" to the first European explorers of Patagonia. The Patagons traveled on guanaco trails to Tierra del Fuego. At that time, the Straits of Magellan were not straits at all, but flat plains. As the glaciers retreated, they carved out the deep channels that then filled with water. The Patagons set about adapting and creating their own new culture until they were Patagons no longer.

The Yamana were one of the ex-Patagon tribes of people who lived on Tierra del Fuego. They were essentially coastal nomads, venturing farther inland only when they needed bark for their canoes. They lived out of the canoes, using them for storage and travel vehicles. Their diet consisted of sea lion, whale, smaller fish, shellfish, penguins, cormorants, wild fowl, guanaco, rhea, and any edible plants they could find.

Although they lived farther South than anyone else, the Yamana lived, save for a loin cloth, without clothes.The reason for this was the climate; it is always raining, so wet clothes make wearers uncomfortable. Instead, they rubbed a mixture of animal fat, whale blubber, and mud on their skin in liberal amounts. That and a sea lion skin cape to cut the wind, was enough for these people when they were traveling. Even on the rough stone beaches, they went barefoot. When sitting idle, they had another way of maintaining warmth: the constant use of fires. Although Tierra del Fuego is not volcanic, is very cold, and is constantly raining, it was named Land of Fire. This is because the European explorers could see dozens of little fires from their ships at night. Even in canoes, where the Yamana put sand on the bottom, the children were expected to keep a fire going at all times, day and night.

The bark canoes were the one of a family's most important possessions. The family's world revolved around the canoe. Every year in spring, they had to return to an area with a good beach and the correct type of trees to build another canoe, since they slowly broke apart. Because men and children spent hours sitting idle in the canoe, fires were kept in the canoe. When underway, the children sat around the fire to keep it going. They also bailed the boat out as it was constantly leaking. Dogs, which were common with the Yamana, sat silent and unmoving on the boats. The dad sat in the bow, ready to harpoon a sea lion if the opportunity arose. The mom was the one who paddled. Due to hours in a canoe, the Yamana had strong upper bodies and smaller, less powerful legs. Each young man was not allowed to own a canoe until he had a wife. Although the men technically owned their canoes, they just built them and left everything else to their wives.The ownership of a canoe was a symbol of adulthood and earned respect.

A beached whale was cause for celebration. Every family within fifty miles or more came to the dead whale. Huge bonfires were built, dances took place, and families got a chance to see each other again. Even with twenty or more families, there was tons, literally tons, of meat to go around. Everybody got their fair share of bones, blubber, and meat. Many of their tools were made from whale bone so the bones were just as desirable as the meat. After days feasting and making new tools to replace older ones, there could still be more whale than everyone could carry. This excess whale would be buried underneath a stream in reserve for seasons that did not prove to be so fruitful, or 'whaleful' as I might say.

Cormorants were another important commodity. On stormy nights, a Yamana would get lowered down a cliff by a hand made rope. He would grab the sleeping cormorants and bite them on the neck to kill them. On calm nights, they would take a covered torch down the cliffs with them. When they saw a cormorant, they would reveal the torch, startling the bird into falling off the cliff, into the waiting arms of another Yamana. This was a very dangerous activity, as the line could break at any time and send the hunter tumbling to his death. Jealous Yamanas would sometimes cut the line to get rid of a rival. Even with the risk, it was a very efficient way of collecting cormorants for food as well as feathers and bones. The feathers were used for arrows and the bones could be used as straws to suck up water from shallow pools.

As nomads, the Yamana had to choose a new campsite regularly. The best sites were those with plentiful kelp near the shore. Without kelp, the Yamana would be a different tribe all together. It was used in almost everything: for rope, fenders, anchors, and fishing guides. Kelp is very firmly set into the ground and it is very dense. It cuts down waves  as they wash onto the beach. In that way, kelp provides a safer haven for fish, crabs, and eggs. Since the bottom of the food chain lived in the kelp, the top was bound to visit. Sea lions, the primary food of the Yamana, patrolled the kelp in search of food. Therefore, it was the best place to hunt them. Yamana men went to the kelp to spear crab. Yamana women went fishing in kelp. Women would sometimes leave their canoe anchored to the kelp and swim ashore or use kelp as a cushion when they lifted canoes onto the rocks. (Swim ashore! The water has been about 7 degrees celsius the whole time we have been here.) Although kelp did form a barrier the canoes couldn't paddle across, it was well worth the aid it gave. It is worth noting that sometimes Sila's anchor would snag the kelp as we were pulling it up. Mama or Big Jack would use our kelp cutter, a sickle shaped knife on a pole, to cut hundreds of pounds of kelp off the anchor and chain.

The Yamana proved to be very creative. There are lots of brilliant little tools found all over Tierra del Fuego. They include: mussel shell knives/scrapers, harpoons with releasing tips, beautiful woven baskets, a variety of differently shaped arrow heads, bird bone straws, and bone sewing needles.

The Fuegan society was very fair. Everyone was considered equal, except for the elderly who were respected greatly. At meals, all food was delivered equally to everyone there, regardless of who had worked to catch the food. In the case of a beached whale, all bones and meat were delivered equally to all families present. It was considered basic procedure for the first family at a campsite to feed the second when, and if, they arrived.

Eventually, the Europeans discovered Cape Horn and, sadly, the natives, who then numbered approximately 3,000. The explorers were shocked when they saw that these people lived almost completely naked in this climate. The explorers took matters into their own hands and attempted to get the natives clothed and "civilized." This, as the diseases of Europe were different from those of Tierra del Fuego, led to many Fuegans' deaths. Seeing what was happening, the Yamana tried to pull back and disconnect from the new people. The lack of ability to communicate and the natives' distrust led to small skirmishes and the Fuegans were soon considered violent and dangerous. This was the biggest step closer to the Fuegan's extinction.

As European guanaco hunters, coal stations, gold miners, penal colonies, and settlers appeared; the Fuegans pushed them back as hard as they could, but it was to no avail. Soon they were hunted like animals. Some were taken to circuses all over the world or put on display as cannibals. There was a price on all the natives' heads; dead, not alive. Since it was the 1800's, the Europeans had guns so most fights were one sided. At the peak of 'indian hunting', as it was called then, some whalers would kill a whale and poison the meat before floating it onto shore. As this attracted everyone in the area, it killed most of the Yamana. If the Yamana started avoiding the whales, they would eventually starve.

All this time, guns, horses, and alcohol were taking their toll as well. Many Fuegans traded furs to get these things. They started hunting on horses with guns. To get enough guanaco furs to trade for these new things, they had to catch more than they would have if they had not wanted the modern equipment. This resulted in the hunters throwing away more meat, and bones than normal. They no longer needed to keep as many bones from a seal or rhea, the most effective tools came from the fur traders. In a way, the first trader to sell them a gun, a horse, or some alcohol, was the individual who did the most damage.

By the 1900's, natives in Ushuaia were considered drunks and they were no longer hunted. Now there is only one native left: Cristina Calderon. She is the last remaining native. All of the remaining partial Fuegans live in a small village near Puerto Williams, Chile. It is, in my opinion, sad that, in just a few decades, a unique and thriving culture clashed with another and now no longer continues to exist. - Porter