Yaghan

Yaghan
Yámana

Yaghan people, 1883
Total population
(100 (2000)–1,685 (2002))
Regions with significant populations
Chile
Languages
Spanish, Yaghan
Religion
traditional tribal religion
Related ethnic groups
Qawasqar, Siane

The Yaghan, also called Yagán, Yahgan, Yámana, Yamana, or Tequenica, are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southern Cone, who are regarded as the southernmost peoples in the world. Their traditional territory includes the islands south of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, extending their presence into Cape Horn. They have been there for more than 10,000 years.

In the 19th century, they were known as Fuegians by the English-speaking world, but the term is now avoided as it can refer to any of the several indigenous peoples of Tierra del Fuego. (For instance, the Selk'nam inhabited the northeastern part of Tierra del Fuego.) Some are reputed to still speak the Yaghan language (also known as Yámana), which is considered to be a language isolate; however, most speak Spanish. As of 2012, Cristina Calderón, who lives in Chile territory, is known as the last full-blooded Yahgan and last native speaker of the Yahgan language.

The Yaghan were traditionally nomads, who were hunter-gatherers. They traveled by canoes between islands to collect food: the men hunted sea lions, while the women dived to collect shellfish.

In 1871, Anglican missionary and linguist Thomas Bridges and George Lewis established a mission at Tierra del Fuego; he and his wife raised their family there. He had learned the language starting when he lived on Keppel Island at the age of 17. Over more than a decade, he compiled a grammar and a 30,000-word dictionary of Yaghan-English.

His second son, Lucas Bridges, also learned the language and is one of the few Europeans to do so. In his 1948 book, which was a history of that period, he writes that in Yaghan, their autonym or name for themselves was yamana (meaning "person" (though modern usage is man only, not woman)- the plural is yamali(m)). The name Yaghan (originally and correctly spelled Yahgan), was first used by his father Thomas Bridges as a shortened form of Yahgashagalumoala (meaning "people from mountain valley channel" -oala is a collective term for 'men', the singular being ua). It was the name of the inhabitants of the Murray Channel area (Yahgashaga), from whom Thomas Bridges first learned the language. The name Tekenika (Spanish: Tequenica), first applied to a sound in Hoste Island, simply means "I do not understand" (from teki- see and -vnnaka (v schwa) have trouble doing), and evidently originated as the answer to a misunderstood question.