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The Selk'nam, also known as the Onawo or Ona people, were an indigenous people in the Patagonian region of southern Argentina and Chile, including the Tierra del Fuego islands. They were one of the last aboriginal groups in South America to be encountered by ethnic Europeans or Westerners in the late 19th century. With the discovery of gold and expansion of sheep farming, the Argentine and Chilean governments began efforts to explore, colonize and integrate the indigenous peoples of Tierra del Fuego (the "land of fire", named by early European explorers observing smoke from Selk'nam fires) into their cultures. They are considered extinct as a tribe. Joubert Yanten Gomez, a Chilean mestizo native of Santiago and linguistic prodigy who is of part Selk'nam ancestry, has taught himself the language and is considered the only speaker; he uses the name ''Keyuk.''〔(Judith Thurman, "A Loss for Words" ), ''The New Yorker'', 30 March 2015〕 While the Selk'nam are closely associated with living in the northeastern area of Tierra del Fuego,〔Anitei, Stefan. ("The Enigma of the Natives of Tierra del Fuego - Are Alacaluf and Yahgan the last Native Black Americans?" ), Softpedia〕 they are believed to have originated as a people on the mainland. Thousands of years ago, they migrated by canoe across the Strait of Magellan.〔Frederick Webb Hodge, ''Proceedings: Held at Washington, December 27–31, 1915, original from Harvard University, 649 pages〕 Their territory in the early Holocene probably ranged as far as the Cerro Benitez area of the Cerro Toro mountain range in Chile.〔C. Michael Hogan, ''Cueva del Milodon'', The Megalithic Portal, ed. A. Burnham, 2008 ()〕 == Lifestyle == Traditionally, the Selk'nam were nomadic people who relied on hunting for survival. They dressed sparingly despite the cold climate of Patagonia. They shared Tierra del Fuego with the Haush (or Manek'enk), another nomadic culture who lived in the south-eastern part of the island. Also in the region were the Yámana or Yahgan. == Relations with Europeans == The Selk'nam had little contact with ethnic Europeans until settlers arrived in the late 19th century. These newcomers developed a great part of the land of Tierra del Fuego as large estancias (sheep ranches), depriving the natives of their ancestral hunting areas. Selk'nam, who considered the sheep herds to be game rather than private property (which they did not have as a concept) hunted the sheep. The ranch owners considered this to be poaching, and paid armed groups or militia to hunt down and kill the Selk'nam, in what is now called the Selk'nam Genocide. To receive their bounty, such groups had to bring back the ears of victims. Salesian missionaries worked to protect and preserve Selk'nam culture. Father José María Beauvoir explored the region and studied the native Patagonian cultures and languages between 1881 and 1924. He compiled a vocabulary of Selk'nam of 4,000 words and 1400 phrases and sentences, which was published in 1915. He included a comparative list of 150 Ona-Tehuelche words, as he believed that there were connections to the Tehuelche people and language to the north. Relations with whites in the Beagle Channel area in the southern area of the island of Tierra del Fuego were somewhat more cordial than with the ranchers. Thomas Bridges, who had been an Anglican missionary at Ushuaia, retired from that service. He was given a large land grant by the Argentine government, where he founded Estancia Harberton. Lucas Bridges, one of his three sons, did much to help the local cultures. Like his father, he learned the languages of the various groups and tried to provide the natives with some space in which to live their customary lives as "lords of their own land". The forces of change were against them, and the indigenous people continued to have high fatality rates as their cultures were disrupted. Lucas Bridges' book, ''Uttermost Part of the Earth'' (1948), provides sympathetic insight into the lives of the Selk'nam and Yahgan. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Selknam people」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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