The Selk'nam genocide was the systematic extermination of the Selk'nam people, one of the four indigenous peoples of Tierra del Fuego, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Historians estimate that the genocide spanned a period of between ten and twenty years, and resulted in the decline of the Selk'nam population from approximately 4,000 people during the 1880s to a few hundred by the early 1900s.
Julius Popper and his men standing next to an unclothed dead Selk'nam (1886)
Selk'nam after internment in Puerto Harris [es],Dawson Island, in 1896.
Julius Popper (on left) shooting, with a Selk'nam corpse visible in the foreground
The Yahgan are a group of indigenous peoples in the Southern Cone of South America. Their traditional territory includes the islands south of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, extending their presence into Cape Horn, making them the world's southernmost human population.
Yahgan people, 1883
A traditional Yahgan basket, woven with smoked Juncus effusus by Abuela Cristina
Yahgan cemetery at Mejillones, Navarino Island
Cristina Calderón, the last living full-blooded Yahgan person and native speaker of the Yahgan language, died in 2022.