Camusu Aike is an indigenous community settlement in the Güer Aike Department of the Santa Cruz Province in southern Argentina . Its inhabitants are members of the Aonikenk (Tehuelche) people.
6-599: Camusu Aike was the first state-recognized Aonikenk community. In the Aonekko ʾaʾien language of the Aonikenk people, the term kamusu (rendered as "Camusu" in Spanish orthography) means "tall waving grass", while aike means "settlement" or "camp". The name therefore can be translated as "camp by the tall waving grass" The community was established by decree on 11 January 1898 by President José Evaristo Uriburu , wherein
12-511: The Mapuche). This allowed the transference of morpho-syntactical elements into Tehuelche. During the 19th and 20th centuries, Spanish became the dominant language as Argentina and Chile gained independence, and Spanish-speaking settlers took possession of Patagonia. Because of these factors the language was dying out. In 1983/84 there were 29 speakers but by the year 2000 there were only 4 speakers left of Tehuelche, by 2012 only 2, and by 2019
18-526: The community's houses were dispersed throughout the territory. In April 2015, the state recognized the community's right to 18 thousand additional hectares that had previously been taken away by the national government, pending the remaining 2 thousand hectares. Camusu Aike was the birthplace of the last fluent speaker of the Aonekko ʾaʾien language, Dora Manchado (1934−2019). Tehuelche language Tehuelche ( Aoniken, Inaquen, Gunua-Kena, Gununa-Kena )
24-606: The last speaker died. As of 2000 the Tehuelche ethnic group numbered 200. Today many members of the Tehuelche ethnic group have limited knowledge of the language and are doing their best to ensure language revival , as Tehuelche is still a very important symbol for the group of people who identify themselves as Tehuelche. In spite of the death of Dora Manchado in 2019, the language has been documented (from her), recuperated and revitalized by various groups of Aonikenks , with
30-546: The local Aonikenk community were granted a 50 thousand-hectare territory in what was their ancestral land. The territory was reduced to 30 thousand hectares during the government of President Juan Domingo Perón . According to the 1966−1968 National Indigenous Census, the community counted with 44 Aonikenk inhabitants, 24 of which spoke Aonekko ʾaʾien. In September 2007 the Argentine state officially recognized Camusu Aike as an official indigenous community. Up until 2011, most of
36-718: Was one of the Chonan languages of Patagonia . Its speakers were nomadic hunters who occupied territory in present-day Chile, north of Tierra del Fuego and south of the Mapuche people. It is also known as Aonikenk or Aonekko 'a'ien. The decline of the language started with the Mapuche invasion in the north, that was then followed by the occupation of Patagonia by the Argentine and Chilean states and state-facilitated genocide. Tehuelche were considerably influenced by other languages and cultures, in particular Mapudungun (the language of
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