Selk'nam Genocide

The Selk'nam Genocide was the mass extermination of the indigenous Selk'nam people of Tierra del Fuego in southern South America from the late 19th to early 20th centuries. It is considered to be apart of the larger Amerindian Genocide that occurred in the Americas during the 15th through 20th centuries.

Genocide

When European settlers began colonizing the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego, the Selk'nam began attacking sheep farms and gold miners. Some of the settlers tried to teach the natives about the concept of private property, but the Selk'nam resumed attacking the settlements, which led to a manhunt to a manhunt on the Selk'nam with the intent to completely eradicate them. The settlers began poisoning their food and brought various body parts as trophies, including their ears, skulls, hands, and genitals after the massacres. One of the perpetrators in the genocide, Julius Popper, also raided their camps and captured their women. In addition, the Argentinian and Chilean governments sent missionaries to assimilate the Selk'nam into western culture and deported them to "human zoos" as well as a concentration camp in Dawson Island. Other Selk'nam also died of foreign diseases introduced by the European settlers as they were forced to convert to Christianity.

Legacy

The last full-blooded Selk'nam, Ángela Loij, died in 1974 and the last native speakers of the Ona language died a decade later. The Selk'nam are considered extinct as a people, although the survivors intermarried with the colonists.