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18-697: This area was inhabited for thousands of years by the indigenous peoples. At the time of European encounter, the Kawésqar lived on the island (they were called the Alcalufe by the Yahgan and the Europeans adopted that term). They lived west of the Yahgan and throughout the islands west of Tierra del Fuego. Beginning in the late 19th century, Europeans began to settle in the region, developing large sheep ranches on

36-543: A competing indigenous tribe whom they met first in central and southern Tierra del Fuego , used for these people: "Alacaluf" or "Halakwulup" (meaning "mussel eater" in the Yahgan language ). Their own name for themselves (autonym) is Kawésqar. Like the Yahgan in southern Chile and Argentina, the Kawésqar used to be a nomadic seafaring people, called canoe-people by some anthropologists. They made canoes that were eight to nine meters long and one meter wide, which would hold

54-556: A family and its dog. They continued this fishing, nomadic practice until the twentieth century, when they were moved into settlements on land. Because of their maritime culture, the Kawésqar have never farmed the land. The total population of the Kawésqar was estimated not to exceed 5,000. They ranged from the area between the Gulf of Penas (Golfo de Penas) to the north and the Brecknock Peninsula (Península de Brecknock) to

72-728: A film called Dawson Isla 10 . It was based on a memoir of the same name written by Sergio Bitar , a former political prisoner on the island during the Augusto Pinochet regime. Alacalufe people The Kawésqar , also known as the Kaweskar , Alacaluf , Alacalufe or Halakwulup , are an indigenous people who live in Chilean Patagonia , specifically in the Brunswick Peninsula , and Wellington , Santa Inés , and Desolación islands northwest of

90-590: A negative impact on the Kawésqar population. In the 1930s many remaining Kawésqar were relocated to Wellington Island , in the town of Villa Puerto Edén , to shield them from pressures from the majority culture. Later they moved further south, to Puerto Natales and Punta Arenas . In the 21st century, few Kawésqar remain. The 2002 census found 2,622 people identifying as Kawésqar (defined as those who still practiced their native culture or spoke their native language). In 2006, only 15 full-blooded members remained, but numerous mestizo have Kawésqar ancestry. Lessons in

108-730: The Bois de Boulogne in Paris , and in the Berlin Zoological Garden . Only four survived to return to Chile. Early in 2010, the remains of five of the seven who died in Europe were repatriated from the University of Zurich , Switzerland, where they had been held for studies. Upon the return of the remains, Chilean president Michelle Bachelet formally apologized for the state having allowed these indigenous people to be taken out of

126-520: The Strait of Magellan and south of the Gulf of Penas . Their traditional language is known as Kawésqar ; it is endangered as few native speakers survive. It has been proposed that the Caucahue people known from colonial-era records either are ancient Kawésqar or came to merge with the Kawésqar. The English and other Europeans initially adopted the name that the Yahgan (also known as Yámana),

144-512: The Chilean government granted Salesian missionaries from Italy a 20-year concession to Dawson Island to educate, care for, and try to assimilate indigenous peoples into European-Chilean culture. One of the structures from the Salesian operation remains. It has been designated a Chilean national monument. After the 1973 Chilean coup d'état , the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet used

162-685: The Kawésqar language are part of the local curriculum, but few native speakers remain to encourage daily use of their traditional language. In 2021 , Kawésqar activist Margarita Vargas López was elected to represent the nation in the Chilean Constitutional Convention . Adwipliin, Aksánas, Alacaluf, Cálen ( Cálenches , Calenes), Caucahué , Enoo, Lecheyel , Taíjataf (Tayataf), Yequinahuere (Yequinahue, Yekinauer ). By 1884 Thomas Bridges , an Anglican missionary based in Ushuaia who had been proselytising and studying

180-717: The Report of the Chilean National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation ( Rettig Report ) some 99 political detainees were held here who were sentenced to forced labor. Others have estimated that as many as 400 prisoners were held at the two camps. Members of the International Red Cross, BBC, and Brazilian press corps were permitted to visit the camps. In 1974 the military said they had transferred elsewhere or released detainees from both camps. In September 2009 director Miguel Littín released

198-646: The coast of (future) Wager Island , in the southeastern region of the Gulf, while attempting to tack from a lee shore during a storm. Some of the survivors were rescued by Chono chieftain Martín Olleta and his men, who took them aboard their dalcas to the Spanish settlements of Chiloé Archipelago. In December 1843, the Chilean schooner Ancud rescued the survivors of wrecked French ship Fleuris on

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216-566: The country to be exhibited and treated like animals. Gulf of Penas The Gulf of Penas ( Golfo de Penas in Spanish, meaning "gulf of distress") is a body of water located south of the Taitao Peninsula , Chile . It is open to the westerly storms of the Pacific Ocean , but it affords entrance to several natural harbours. Among these are the gulfs of Tres Montes and San Esteban and San Quintín , and Tarn Bay at

234-577: The entrance to Messier Channel . To the south of the gulf lies Guayaneco Archipelago and to the east lies San Javier Island and then the mainland. Spanish explorers and Jesuits , sailing south from Chiloé Archipelago in the 17th and 18th centuries, regularly avoided rounding the Taitao Peninsula by entering the Gulf, after a brief land crossing at the isthmus of Ofqui . In 1741, the British warship HMS  Wager ran aground along

252-473: The indigenous peoples of Tierra del Fuego since the late 1860s, and his son Despard compiled a 1,200-word vocabulary for the Kawésqar language in the form of a manuscript. Through the late 19th and early 20th centuries, numerous missionaries and anthropologists moved among the indigenous peoples to record, study and, in the case of the missionaries, proselytise them. In 1881, European anthropologists took eleven Kawéskar people from Patagonia to be exhibited in

270-495: The island to house political prisoners suspected of being communist activists, including government ministers and close friends of the deposed President Salvador Allende , most notably Orlando Letelier , Luis Corvalán , Clodomiro Almeyda and José Tohá . They were under the strict control of the Chilean Navy as each individual case was investigated. In addition, according to an International Red Cross report in 1974 and

288-479: The main island. Miners also flocked to the area in search of gold. Chile used Dawson Island for an internment camp for the Selk'nam and other native people, to get them out of areas that settlers were trying to develop. Major sheep ranchers hired armed men to hunt down the indigenous people for bounty in the Selk'nam genocide , as they persisted on hunting in their former territory and considered sheep as game. In 1890,

306-421: The shores of the Gulf. Local marine and terrestrial wildlife includes: The Gulf is a suitable habitat for a number of species of baleen whales , and is speculated to be a wintering/calving ground for a population of the critically endangered southern right whale . 47°22′S 74°50′W  /  47.367°S 74.833°W  / -47.367; -74.833 This Aysén Region location article

324-422: The south. Like other indigenous peoples, they suffered high fatalities from endemic European infectious diseases . Their environment was disrupted as Europeans began to settle in the area in the late 1880s. A 2022 estimate puts the total population of the Kawésqar before the 19th- and early 20th-century collapse at 3,700 to 3,900. The Little Ice Age , lasting from the 17th to the 19th centuries, may also have had

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