Fuegian Monster Sculpture by the Chonos (?) in the 1820s

William Low is mentioned by FitzRoy his account of the voyages of the ships Adventure and Beagle (1826 and 1836). Low was a British sealer and ship captain who shared information with FitzRoy when they met in the Falkland / Malvinas Islands in 1833.

Low provided FitzRoy with plenty of useful tips on the Patagonian natives, Southern Chile, and the geography, weather, culture, etc. Of interest is what FitzRoy wrote in his book about a "sculpture" done by the Chono people (See p. 194).

He says that Low took a young boy, who spoke English, on board his ship, the Adeona. The child acted as pilot and interpreter during the 18 months Low surveyed the area. He was named Bob by the sealers that hunted in the region. FitzRoy says he was "one of the Chonos tribe ... Niqueaccas".

The wooden effigy of an evil spirit is mentioned in the underlined text in the quote below:

"The boy Bob had been taken on board the Adeona, in consequence of some dispute with the natives, who had stolen things from the vessel. Mr. Low intended to keep him as a hostage until the missing property should be restored; but the tribe decamped, and as Low was obliged to sail, he carried the boy away with him. At the return of the vessel, about eight months afterwards, the boy saw something on shore, at the entrance of the harbour, which he looked at for some time very earnestly, and then gave Mr. Low to understand that the natives had declared war against him and his ship, and intended to attack her at her return. No natives being visible, Low went ashore with the boy, to see what it was that had attracted his attention, and found a number of spears, arrows, and clubs, roughly cut out of wood, painted red, and stuck into the ground, across a point of the island, and having in the middle a large block of wood, roughly carved into a strange figure (said by the boy to be that of their evil spirit) curiously painted, with long red teeth, and having a short halter of hide (seal-skin) round the part intended to represent a neck. Notwithstanding this outward demonstration of anger and intent to revenge, not a native was seen in the neighbourhood during the many months which Low passed there, and in consequence he had no opportunity of restoring the boy to his own tribe; but he was afterwards kindly received, and treated as Low's son, among the Patagonians of Gregory Bay"

This is the first reference of a wood sculpture among Southern Patagonian tribes. I wonder, which is this animal depicted by the wood block, the "strange figure... evil spirit... curiously painted, with long red teeth, and... short halter of hide... round the neck"?

This is the first description of the image of a demon or spirit in Southern Patagonia. The artistic expressions of the Patagonian natives were painting on their guanaco hides, or quillangos, and the rock art of the ancient Paleoindians. They seldom carved stone other than for utilitarian purposes, and the use of wood for making whittled effigies is unheard of. In 2014 I posted about some "sculptures" done by Fuegian natives, none resemble the one described above. Below is an example found in a museum.

Kaweskar (Alakaluf) mask. See the 3-D version online at the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Chile

Was it a mythical beast, or a depiction of some real creature. As you can see in the image above, the Alakaluf boat people made wooden masks, they were coarse, but perhaps colored with white (ash) and red (ochre) like the ones used by the Selk'nam Fuegians in their Hain initiation ceremonies (see a colored postage stamp series below based on real black and white photos taken by Father M. Gusinde in the early 1900s).

I have read many articles and books, and this is a first. This is different from the Rewe or wooden totems of the Mapuche, who lived 1,600 km (1,000 mi.) further north, and were more civilized than the Chono people (living in houses, farmers, with domesticated llamas -chilihueque). The Chono were canoe people, who were hunter-gatherers and lived on the edge of the Ocean in a rainy region, with coarse tents made of seal skin. Not one reference mentions their art or sculpted wood.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall © 

Trimenen the Giants of Coin (Patagonia).

Oliver van Noort (1558-1627) was a Dutchman, navigator and merchant who sailed around the globe (the first Dutchman to do so) during an expedition which set out from Texel, The Netherlands in 1598 with the intention of looting Portuguese and Spanish settlements in America, and trade with spices in the Far East.

A company was organized, the Magelhaensche Compagnie with Peter Van Beveren, Huyg Gerritz and John Benninck as its main shareholders, and it fitted four ships the "Hendrick Frederick", the "Mauritius", the "Endracht" and "Esperance", with 248 men on board.

They reached the Strait of Magellan, and massacred a group of Fuegian natives on Penguin Island, killing all the men and sparing the women and children -though they kidnapped four of the children. One of them gave them the following account:

"From one of these boys, after he had learnt the Dutch language, they had the following intelligence. The larger of the two islands was named Castemme by the natives, and the tribe inhabiting it Enoo. The smaller island was called Talche. Both were frequented by great numbers of penguins, the flesh of which served the natives as food, and their skins for cloathing. Their only habitations were caves. The neighbouring continent abounded in ostriches, which they also used as food. The natives of these dreary regions were distinguished into tribes, each having their respective residences. The Kemenetes dwelt in Kaesay; the Kennekin in Karamay; the Karaiks in Morina: All these are of the ordinary size, but broad-breasted, and painted all over; the men tying up their pudenda in a string, and the women covering their parts of shame with the skins of a penguin; the men wearing their hair long, while that of the women was kept very short; and both sexes going naked, except cloaks made of penguin skins, reaching only to the waist. There was also a fourth tribe, called Tirimenen, dwelling in Coin, who were of a gigantic stature, being ten or twelve feet high, and continually at war with the other tribes."

Read the Source of this text (Kerr Robert. (1824). General History and Collection of Voyages… Edinburgh. Vol. X Chap. IV. Voyage of Oliver Van Noort Round the World in 1598-1601.). Another online source with the original book.

In the original Dutch language version (see it online here), the names for the natives are written the same as in the English translation except the following: Karayke, Morine, and Trimenen.

The massacre and kidnapping is a display of ruthlessness typical of Europeans of those days (I exclude Narbrough from this category, he was more compassionate. When he saw the natives at Port Desire in 1669 he wrote "they would not have come near our People, if they had not fallen accidentally in the Hills and Valleys with them. I have thought that they have heard of the cruel dealings of the Spaniards, and dare not trust us." (Source)

Dutch killing Fuegians, by T. de Bry. Source

By the time they left the Strait of Magellan, scurvy, bad weather, and the clashes with the Portuguese and the natives had decimated the crew. The second in command, Jacob Claasz, was court martialled for attempted desertion and abandoned on the mainland near Port Famine. His fate is unknown.

Only two ships made it into the Pacific Ocean, the "Mauritius" and the "Endracht", 101 men had died, and only 147 had made it to there alive. They raided some spots along the Pacific coast and then they visited the Spice Islands. Only 45 made it back to Holland, the outcome of the commercial venture was a break-even. It led to a greater geographic knowledge and set the basis for the Dutch East India Company that would occupy the East Indies and establish the Dutch colonial empire there.

All the abducted children died at sea, and shortly after, in 1600, Sebald de Weert on his way back to The Netherlands stopped on that island and found a woman, who had survived the massacre.

The Natives

This is the original Dutch text by van Noort.

Below are two maps, one by van Noort (top) from 1602, with the Pinguyns Eÿlanden, and a modern one (bottom) with the only three islands in that part of the Strait, from north to south Isabella, Marta, and Magdalena. If the people the Dutch killed were on one of these islands, they were boat people, not foot indians like the Selk'nam.

van Noort map of Patagonia and Current map. A Whittall

van Noort identified four native groups and their territories (names from English and Dutch versions):

• The Enoo on the Island of Casteme next to the Talche Island
• The Kemenetes in Kaesay
• The Kennekin in Karamay
• The Karaiks (or Karayke) in Morina (or Morine)
• The Tirimenen (or Trimenen) in Coin

The first four groups were normal sized people, which by the description given, seem to be canoe people. The fourth group were the giants, at war with the others.

The Selk'nam called the Yagan people "Uowen" which does not appaer in this list, so this also proves that the boy kidnapped by van Noort was not a Selk'nam.

I have found two scholarly articles on this subject, one is a thesis (Alejandra Vidal, (2015) Proto-Chon: Fonología, morfología y léxico, who discusess her findings about the words mentioned by van Noort, most of which she writes "belong to some language of the Chon family" (see p. 71 1.6.1. La lengua de los enoo (fines del siglo XVI)).

Vidal interprets the Enoo terms as equivalent to the following Chon language terms:

• Kenneka. Selk'nam "nèné-qà" ‘belonging to the West’, "k-nèné-qr" ‘person from the West’
• Koin. Place name. Selk'nam "kʔójin" ~ "kwʔójin" ‘cordillera’ (Andes)
• Castemme (Santa Magdalena Island). Tehuelche "kašte:m" ‘land within’
• Talcke (smaller Santa Marta Island). Tehuelche "t’alk’e-" ‘be small’

This is a jumble of Selk'nam and Tehuelche terms. Which group would use such a language?

David Williams wrote an interesting paper attempting to identify: "Which ethnic group did the mysterious Enoo tribe (Strait of Magellan, 1599) belong to? / ¿A que grupo etnico pertenecio la misteriosa tribu enoo (Estrecho de Magallanes, 1599)?" Revista de Antropologia Iberoamericana, vol. 10, no. 1, Jan. 2015, pp. 99+. Gale OneFile: Informe Académico, Online

Williams suggests the enoo people were Yamaná people (Yaghans) canoe people who were inside the territory of the Alakaluf canoe people. This is far from the Beagle Channel and southeastern Islands of Fuegia, where the Yamaná people lived. What were they doing in the Strait of Magellan hundreds of kilometers north of their territory?.

I agree with Williams that the particle "aike" found in the name of the name of the Karaik or Karaike is a Tehuelche word which means "campground", "place where you live". So maybe it was the spot where the "Kar" people lived (?) what is Kar?

Over a century ago, John Cooper (Analytical and critical bibliography of the tribes of Tierra del Fuego and adjacent territory. (1917). Washington Govt. printing office.) wrote about the words reported by van Noort and stated that "Neither the tribal names or other words have been confirmed by later investigators; they are all probably erroneous, with the possible exception of Coin (= Chon?). Cf. however, Furlong, 7, p. 185: the western Onas are called Kenenica Chon."

Below is an image from Furlong's book (Furlong, Charles Wellington, (1917), Tribal Distribution and Settlements of the Fuegians, Comprising Nomenclature, Etymology, Philology, and Populations) and the entry regarding Kenenica people:

Source

Furlong and the Kenenica. Source

Furlong (1874–1967) was an American author, artist and explorer who traveled extensively and visited Tierra del Fuego in 1907-1908. He wrote several books about the area and its people. He says that the Southern Onas (Selk'nam) called the "Western" Onas "Kenenica Chon", where Chon, is the Tehuelche word for "people"** so "Kenenica" is "Western". This is in agreement with Vidal's interpretation.

But, why would the people in Penguin Island use a Southern Selk'nam term?

** See Alexander Chamberlain (On the Puelchean and Tsonekan (Tehuelchean), the Atacameñan (Atacaman) and Chonoan, and the Charruan Linguistic Stocks of South America, American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1911), pp. 458-471. Online) who confirms that "... Tsoneka (Tsoneca), or Tsonek, Chonek, etc., the term by which they call themselves, said to signify "men," "people.""

This identifies two words: "Coin" = "Chon" (people) and "Kenenica" = "West". We will never know for certain who any of these people were, including the Trimenen giants.

Mateo Martinic (Los canoeros de la Patagonia meridional, Journal de la société des américanistes, 1989, 75 pp. 35-61. Source) identifies the "Karaike" with the Alakaluf canoe people and the "Enoo (Enooke, Enuke)" with the "Laguediche, Aveguediche, Poykes, Poyukes Indians of the Strait and adjoining waters".

Martinic does not identify these natives, but Alcides D'Orbigny, who visited Patagonia, did so in the 1830s when he listed the names given by mariners who visited the area or those who interacted with the Patagonians: "Beauchene-Gouin only mentions two [tribes] the Laguediches in the east and the Aveguediches, in the west of the Strait. Boungainville calls them Pecheraís because he heard them pronounce that word many times. Molina calls them Caucau, Falconer [Falkner] who never saw them gives them the name of Key Yus or Keyos to those who are on the west of the Strait of Magellan and the name of Yucama Cunny to those in the east" (Source. p. 231)

I have not been able to find any coincidences between the words mentioned by van Noort and those listed in this Spanish-Alakaluf / Alakaluf-Spanish dictionary.

Thomas Falkner didn't visit Patagonia, but he had excellent sources. He wrote in his Description of Patagonia (1774) about the southernmost Tehuelche groups, along the Strait of Magellan:

"The last of the Tehuel nations are the Yacana-cunnees, which signifies foot-people; for they always travel on foot, having no horfes in their country. To the north, they border on the Sehuau-cunnees [these are named for some black hares!: "Sehuau signifies, in the Tehuel dialect, a species of black rabbit, about the size of a field-rat; and as their country abounds in these animals, their name may be derived from thence; cunnee signifying people."] to the west, on the Kej-yus or Key-yuhues, from whom they are divided by a ridge ot mountains : to the east, they are bounded by the ocean; and to the south, by the islands of Tierra del Fuego or the South Sea. These Indians live near the sea, on both sides of the straits, and oftentimes make war with one another. They make use of light floats, like those of Chiloe in order to pass the straits. They are sometimes attacked by the Huilliches, and the other Tehuelhets, who carry them away for slaves, as they have nothing to lose but their liberty and their lives. They live chiefly on fish; which they catch, either by diving, or striking them with their darts. They are very nimble of foot, and catch guanacoes and ostriches with their bowls (sic) [bows?]."

These "floats" or coracles were used by the Aonikenk people, who seem to be these Yacana-cunnees (probably the name given to them by the Northern Tehuelches, as foot Indians). The Selk'nam to the south may also have used floats to trade across the Strait of Magellan, so it is possible that the natives on Penguin Island were Aonikenk or Selk'nam. The "western people" would have been the Key-yus, possibly the Kemenetes in Kaesay. Mountains separated them from the Aonikenk.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall © 

Hopes for the Huemul, on the verge of extinction

Ateam of specialists from the Chilean Rewilding Foundation and park rangers of the National Forest Corporation of Chile (CONAF), encountered a group of ten huemules in the region of Cape Froward on the Southwestern tip of the continent. This is actually the southernmost point of continental South America.

It is a remote and wild area, and there is a proposal to turn it into a National Park.

The huemul, or Southern Andean deer (Hippocamelus bisulcus) is an endangered species that lives in the Andean forests in both Chile and Argentina's Patagonia. Roughly 1,500 of them live in the wild, barely 1% of their original population before the Europeans reached the area in the mid 1850s.

This deer's original range was large, from central Chile (34° S) to the Strait of Magellan (54° S). Now it lives in fragmented groups.

Their presence in Tierra del Fuego Island is debated, one paper reports that it "is largely speculative and poorly documented. Charles Darwin (1871) registered in his voyage of 1834 the presence of a “deer” on the Island, and the Argentine explorer Ramón Lista (1881) included the “Cervus chilensis” in the zoology of the island. Moreover, up to the present, there is general agreement in the absence of Hippocamelus sp. in the Island."

Charles Darwin, in fact, wrote that "the deer has never seen south of the Strait of Magellan."

The journals of explorers, scientists, and settlers reported that these deer didn't fear humans. They seldom encountered natives in the dense forests (the natives were reluctant to enter the woods, and feared spirits and monsters that they believed lived there), and when they came across the Euro-American people, they didn't run away. They were hunted very easily and nearly became extinct.

The Tehuelche people that lived on the eastern side of the Andean forests did not interact frequently with the huemul because they did not venture into the animal’s habitat, the forests. Chief Kánkel, who lived a few kilometers from the Andean Forests by the Apeleg, Senguel, and Mayo Rivers in what is now the Argentine province of Chubut, had never eaten huemul meat until Welsh explorer ap Iwan shot one during an expedition in the late 1800s.

The huemul is related to the taruca (Hippocamelus antisensis) that lives in the dryer Andes range north of Patagonia, in Chile, Argentina, Peru, and Bolivia, which is vulnerable but not on the brink of extinction.

It is a medium-sized deer roughly 1.5 to 1.8 m long (4.5 to 6 ft.) and a shoulder height of around 90 cm (3 ft); it ways between 70 and 100 kg (154 to 220 lb). It appears on the Chilean coat of arms, with the condor.

Coat of Arms of Chile

Among the the Alakaluf or Kawésqar people who lived on the west an northwestern shores of Tierra del Fuego Island, and on the SW tip of Chile north of the Strait of Magellan, there was a myth about the huemul:
A couple had managed to survive the great flood (a Noachian flood) but were cold and helpless, and dreamed about fire. Then they saw a huemul enter their hut with embers and burning coals on its antlers, they took them and managed to make fire. Since then they consider the huemul as the bearer of fire, and they did not hunt it. (Source)

Huemules

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall © 

Amerindians navigated to Polynesia before the Polynesians arrived there

An article in Nature (Native American gene flow into Polynesia predating Easter Island settlement, Ioannidis, A.G., Blanco-Portillo, J., Sandoval, K. et al. Nature (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2487-2) finds evidence that there is Amerindian admixture in Polynesian people due to an early "one-time-only" event that took place around 1150-1230 AD in eastern Polynesia.

The Amerindians didn't sail to Easter Island (Rapa Nui) which is the point where America and Polynesia are closest. Instead they moved across the equatorial region -like Thor Heyerdahl had suggested in the 1940s- and reached the Marquesas islands, which at that time were uninhabited.

Then came the island-hopping Polynesians from the west and they met there, admixed and then spread across the Pacific.

The authors find similarities between the DNA sampled in Polynesia with the DNA of Colombian and Ecuadorian Native Americans.

A plausible alternative is that the Amerindians never set sail across the ocean. Instead the Polynesians kept on sailing eastwards and reached America, here they fraternized with the locals and returned with Amerindian DNA back home.

The Polynesia to America route has been proposed before (Diffusionism Reconsidered: Linguistic and Archaeological Evidence for Prehistoric Polynesian Contact with Southern California Terry L. Jones and Kathryn A. Klar American Antiquity, Vol. 70, No. 3 (Jul., 2005), pp. 457-484 DOI: 10.2307/40035309). And I have posted about Polynesian DNA in South America (here) regarding the Botocudo people and a possible route for peopling America via the Antarctic (read more ), but for pre-Polynesian people -I was thinking about Aboriginals from Australia or even pre-sapiens hominins (here), not Polynesians who are the latecomers to the region.

Alternate Hypothesis

Perhaps the Amerindian signal has another origin. Let's take a look at the map in Nature's paper:

See large size map

The "Polynesians" supposedly have a strong imprint of Amerindian -green- DNA. And the Chilean Mapuche people (brown) are found in large amounts in Easter Island, which is coherent with the Spanish from Chile visiting the islands with native servants-laborer, and from there back migrated into western Polynesia in historic times. They also occupy the Chilean-Argentine area of South America. The ancestral Kaweskar people who were "canoe people" have a high prevalence of the "green" signal. They were the first to reach southern South America.

The strong Mesoamerican signal may (green) may indicate that these people (Mixe, Zapotec, Maya, Northern South American Amerindians and the ancestral Kaweskar) came from Polynesia -from Asia via Polynesia. They also settled there in their migration from Asia to America. Later came the (pale blue) wave of Polynesians and replaced them.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-20204 by Austin Whittall © 

Yamana sculpture

During the long process of writing my book on Patagonian "Monsters", I read many papers, articles and books (especially books) written by explorers, missionaries and scientists who visited Patagonia between the 1500s and the early 1900s. In one of those books, I came across the image shown below, with the Spanish caption: "Ensayo de escultura, fueguino (on-asciaga) de Tierra del Fuego", which can be translated as: "attempt at a sculpture; Fueguian (on-asicaga) Tierra del Fuego" [1]:

Yaghan sculpture From [1].

The image was published in a book that described the scientific expedition undertaken by the Italian captain Giacomo Bove, sponsored by the Argentine government, in 1881-1882. His was an expedition to Southern Patagonia, the Beagle Channel and Tierra del Fuego.

"On-asciaga" is the native Yaghan (also known as Yamana) name for the Beagle Channel [2]. This Channel lies on the southern shores of the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego Island, and marks the border between Argentina (north) and Chile (south). By the way, in 1978, both countries almost went to war over three islands located on the eastern mouth of the Channel (Picton, Lennox and Nueva). War was averted and the dispute was settled peacefully (the islands are now Chilean).

These Yaghans (also known as Yamanas) were "canoe people" who moved about in their bark canoes (yes, they were made out of the bark of the Southern Beeches -Nothofagus sp. trees). They lived a nomadic life in the Fuegian channels and islands. They spent some time on land, in simple huts made from branches, and hunted the local seals or ate the mussels and crabs that were abundant in the Fuegian coastal waters.

The Yaghans were actually the southernmost people in the whole world.

Their closest neighbors were the Alakaluf (or Kawesqar) who lived in the islands of southwestern Patagonia to the north and west of the Yaghans. Both had a similar lifestyle differing only in their languages, they were usually fighting each other.

On the Isla Grande's mainland, there were two other groups of natives, one in the southeastern forests were the Haush (or Haus) the others lived in the grasslands of the North (the Selk'nam or Ona).

I was surprised because neither the Bridges (Thomas or Lucas), [*] who were the first Europeans to live in the region as from 1870, nor any other later (or earlier) explorer mentioned any Yamaná sculptures! or any artistic production beyond their tools or some body painting and ceremonial masks. [3]

[*] Thomas Bridges, (1842–1898). English Anglican minister who from 1869 until he retired in 1887 headed the mission among the Yagans, founding what is now the town of Ushuaia. He later obtained a land grant from the Argentine government close to the town, and set up his estancia (sheep ranch) at Harberton. He also wrote a very complete Yagan language dictionary.
Stephen Lucas Bridges, (1874-1949) was the third son of English Anglican missionary Thomas Bridges. Lucas was the first European to be born in Tierra del Fuego. He grew up among the Yagans and learnt their language and customs. He moved from Ushuaia to Harberton in 1887, where his father established a ranch ("estancia") after retiring from mission work. In 1902 he set up his own ranch at Viamonte, where he would meet and befriend the Selk'nam. His autobiographic book Uttermost Part of the Earth (1948) is a valuable source on Fuegian anthropology.

The Yaghan Mask

The Yamana used bark masks in their ceremonies (they are often refered to as hílix, but that is their word for quiver -to hold arrows, not for "mask"), some images are shown below [6] (see Another photograph):

The neighboring Kawésqar (or Alacaluf) canoe people used masks [4]:

The image above is a photograph by Martin Guisinde (1923), showing a phallic "Yinchiahua" mask used during the male puberty initiation ceremonies.

The Fuegian native ceremonies invoked evil spirits and the men got dressed up to represent them. The best known is the Selk'nam's "Hain" ceremony, which was witnessed by Europeans in the late 1800s (Lucas Bridges). The Yaghans also had a similar rite, "Chiejaus" which was studied much later in the 1920s, when they had lost nearly all of their ancient customs and had already been absorbed into Western "civilization".

Fuegian males -of all groups- had a fixation with women’s freedom and they went to extremes to subjugate them. Their myths indicate that in the past men were under female domination until they revolted and adopted initiation rites in which they donned costumes and masks and impersonated evil spirits to instill fear and keep their women subdued. This may explain why females are associated with evil monsters in their culture.

The Patagonian indians in general and the Fuegians in particular did not sculpt stone. They fashioned their spears and tools from bone or stone, wove baskets, braided leather or used rounded stones for their "boleadoras" to capture the local guanaco camelids (or ñandú or rhea "ostriches" on the American mainland).

The few examples of engraved stones, supposedly of a Phoenician origin are an exception (see also alleged Hebrew engraved stones), but are clearly not of the Native American style which are less elaborate (see Genuine Native stone implements).

The stark and simple masks contrast with those elaborate "Middle Eastern" engravings, and also with the strange "Yamana sculpture"; the object does not seem to be a native handicraft.

This strange Yamana sculpture showing a person (with a hat? and a coat?) was probably the outcome of contact with Bridges' mission or maybe it was crafted as part of the activities at the misison. Thomas Bridges does not tell us what sort of work the natives did at the Ushuaia mission (we do know that the crowded settlement and the interaction with the Europeans which began arriving in the early 1880s decimated the canoe people with measles, tuberculosis and flu).

I resist the temptation to suggest that the sculpture depicts some mythical being (a Fuegian dwarf or ogre), because there is no context in which to insert it. Just a photograph in a book with a non descript caption. Such was the work of the anthropologists of the late 1800s!!

Later scholars had the knowledge and the know-how but lacked the subjects: disease had wiped out most of the Yaghans, Alakaluf and also the Selk'nam (or Ona) pedestrian natives that lived inland (actually these had also fallen under the bullets shot at them by the local gold-panners and European sheep farmers: the natives took to hunting sheep, far more easy preys than the guanaco).

Early 1900s postcard depicting a "Fuegian Indian" (No indication is given about the group he belonged to), both he and the Yaghan pictured further down have a certain "Australian" look don't they?

Below is a Yamana native (in mourning), from the French "Mission Scientifique du Cap Horn" (1882-1883) under captain Ferdinand Martial [7]:

Sources

[1] Giacomo Bove, Domenico Lovisato, Expedición a la Patagonia: un viaje a las tierras y mares australes (1881-1882). Ediciones Continente, 2005, pp. 146.
[2] Guillermo Lagos Carmona Los títulos historicos Andres Bello, 1985 - Chile pp. 34
[3] Orquera, L. and Piana, E., (1999). La vida material y social de los Yámana. B. Aires: Eudeba
[4] Claudio Pulgar Pinaud, (2007). Vivienda Indigena, Participación y desarrollo social. El caso de la Comunidad Indigena Kawesqar de Puerto Eden. Revista invi Nº 60, Agosto 2007, Vol. 22: 59 -100
[5] Infinity of Nations: Art and History in the Collections of the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian.
[6] Cristopher Agostino, (2011)Masks from here Bark Masks and Bodypainting of the Yamana (or Yaghan) and the Selk’nam (or Ona) of Tierra Del Fuego
[7] Martial, L., (2005). Mision al Cabo de Hornos, la expedición científica francesa en la Romanche Julio de 1882 a setiembre de 1883.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2014 by Austin Whittall © 

Red headed Amerindians and the G haplogroup in America (an e-mail)

This morning I read an e-mail one of the readers of this Blog, which was very interesting indeed (Thank you for writing, Craig). My reply (edited) is below, I just wanted to share it with you because it has some good links which expand on previously published posts.

Red Headed Xiaohe mummy, China

The mail asked about photographs of the red-headed Amerindians who carried D4h3 hg. (my posts were here).

My reply

... Regarding red-haired natives, they do not abound, perhaps they were much more frequent in the past as their mummified remains attest.

If you are interested in what they look like when photography was discovered, please check out the following sites on Alakaluf or Kaweskar, Yamana or Yaghans, Chumash, Pericue or Pericu:

http://www.limbos.org/sur/alak.htm and Kaweskar, Yamana, Chumash.

No photos exist of the Chilean Chono, who became extinct in the 1700s.

When you google red-haired native Americans you come across al sorts of weird stuff: UFOs, Atlanteans, white race supremacists, but if you remove the junk there are some nice gems to be found like the definitively red-haired Xiahoe Beauty mummy from China, pictured above, ca. 4,000 years old found in the Tarim Basin in Northwest China.

Then there are the Chinchorro people of Chile, not mentioned in my post, also boat-people like the Chumash, Kaweskar, Yamana, Chono and Peircue. Their mummies seem to be red headed. Like I mentioned in my post, these Chinchorro also used red pigment to stain their mummies and wrapped them in rushes (just like the Lovelock cave natives did).

We discussed the possible Transatlantic peopling route into America, and I commented that:

The transatlantic crossing from Africa is indeed a very feasible option (I have posted about Phoenicians, Greek and Carthagininans crossing the Ocean) and may have also been an Atlantic entry route for H. erectus into South America, so it is also possible.

I believe that mtDNA and Y chromosome analysis will reveal interesting and complex peopling patterns once the native people are sampled in depth and ancient remains are also sequenced. It willl yield some surprises. I am currenty wondering if some of the G and R Y-chromosome haplogroups found among natives is due to admixture with Europeans post-1492 discovery or... is archaic and entered America long before its discovery...

G haplogroup in America

This ends my reply to Craig, and yes, I found some G NRY hg. mentioned in a paper on the Kolla natives in Northern Argentina. The authors attribute it to admixture with Italian migrants post 1900s.

G haplogroup is definitively an Old World lineage and is found at low frequencies across a large part of Eurasia. It is also found among Spaniards (who colonized South America) and Italians (50% of Argentines have Italian ancestry), so a recent European admixture cannot be discarded.

Nevertheless, these Kolla carry a duplicate at STR DYS19, which is uncommon and found at very low frequencies in certain haplotypes within C and G Y chromosome haplogroups. C is interesting since it is a founding lineage in America but very rare and G is the European one mentioned above.

This makes me wonder.... Why do both these hgs. have the duplication and the others don't?
Could the Kolla have been wrongly typed as G and actually be C?
What are the odds of an Italian with the rare G DYS19 STR duplication reaching Northern Argentina and spreading his genes so widely that they later appear in a small sampling of Amerindian genes?
How could a genuine Native American haplotype shared with Europeans (i.e. R or G) be identified as autochthonous instead of being classified as European admixtuer(as currently is)?

I will look into this and post on it later.

Below is a map with G hg. distribution:

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2014 by Austin Whittall © 

mtDNA D4H3a haplogroup

This is the fourth post of a series. It continues my previous posts, in which I covered the Kentucky Red-haired Mummy (Eastern U.S., red haired Amerindian) and continued with the Cueva del Gualicho Mummy in Patagonia (which was also painted red and believed to be a Fuegian - more on Fuegians below: they were skilled canoe builders.), the third post was about the Pericué of Baja California, who were able seamen, used ochre on their dead and were related to the "red haired" Lovelock, Nevada, people who, like them and the Aleutians buried their dead in a similar maner.

In today's post we will look into a mtDNA that links several groups of Native Americans along the Pacific coast, who wer all canoe builders and seamen.

mtDNA D4h3a

The remains of a man found in 1996 at the On Your Knees Cave, on the Prince of Wales Island on the Alaska panhandle, US., were analysed, and dated to 10.3 kya. His mtDNA was sequenced and found to belong to a very singular haplogroup: D4h3a.

It is a very rare one since only 2% of Amerindians carry it. It is found at its highest frequencies among certain South American groups and less frequent in Mexico and California. (1) Let's take a look at its distribution:

Fuegian canoe people

Another group carrying D4h3A are the Yaghans (2) (also known as Yamana). They are Fuegians (yes, it seems Moreno was right). The Yaghans were canoe people, who became extinct due to European diseases by 1900. For millennia they had been the southernmost people in the whole world.

The Yaghan were canoe people, they used their canoes to navigate the sea from Cape Horn to Isla de los Estados Island in Tierra del Fuego. Their canoes were described by Captain Robert FitzRoy in the early 1800s as follows: (7)

"...its shape is nearly that which would be taken by the strong bark of the trunk of a tree (twelve to twenty feet in length, and a foot, or two feet, in diameter), separated from the solid wood, in one piece. If this piece of bark were drawn together at the ends, and kept open by sticks in the middle, it would look rather like a Fuegian canoe."

He was right, they were built from a single piece of bark, peeled off a Southern Beech tree. It was soaked in water and then shaped into a canoe, lashed to a frame made from saplings. (5)

Yaghan bark canoe. (5)

Alakaluf

Yet another group of Fuegians, the Alakaluf or Kawésqar people also carry this odd haplogroup (+10% frequency), they did not die out, and still live in the region. Coincidentally (or not), they are also canoe people, living to the west an northwestern shores of Tierra del Fuego Island.

An Alakaluf mummy (yes, they too buried their dead in caves, mummified, and wrapped in hides) (3)(6) was studied and its mtDNA sequenced. It was D4h3a too.

The Alakaluf canoes were dugouts, built by hollowing a large tree trunk and whittling it into a canoe. Later, after the arrival of the Europeans, they built them using axes and saws, with planks, imitating European boats.

Both Fuegian groups date back to at least 12 Kya in that region (4) and have myths relating to a universal deluge, perhaps recalling the period of deglaciation, when the Strait of Magellan flooded as did the low lying areas of southern Patagonia.

Chonos

Not much is known about them because they became extinct by the mid 1700s. European disease killed them all.

The Chono lived south of Chiloé island, in Chile, along the coast of the Guaitecas Islands, Taitao Peninsula and the Guayanecos Islands, up to the Gulf of Penas.

They lived in their canoes, the Dalcas. They fished, hunted sea lions and collected shellfish. Their boats were their livelihood.

Dalca: it was built with three to five wooden planks which were sewn together with vegetable fibers. They used the wood of the larch (alerce) tree which they split lengthwise with wedges. The wood was soaked and fired to bend it into shape.

One, kept at the Stockholm Folkens Museum Etnografiska in Sweden measures 4.26 x 1.00 x 0.51 m [13.9 x 3.3 x 1.6 ft.]. Though there are Spanish accounts of canoes carrying 15 oarsmen and measuring 10 meters [32.8 ft.] long. They had a rudder, ribs, benches and sometimes masts.

A "Dalca", made from sewn planks by the Chonos of Chile

The spaces between the planks were caulked with the leaves of a local plant.

The Dalcas have an "astonishing similarity with vessels built by Lapps" (5). We know that they too carried they D4h3a haplogroup (11), but the other Patagonian natives (Mapuche to the north, Tehuelche to the east and the Fuegians to the south, carried it, so it is likely that they did too).

Cayapa

The Cayapa people, of Ecuador, also carry the D4h3a haplogroup (21.67% frequency). They live along the Cayapas river on the Ecuadorian Pacific coast.

A Cayapa canoe. From (10).

They made their canoes using the "dugout" technique, hollowing a balsa-wood tree-trunk. They make them nowadays using the same technique. These canoes measure about 4.5 m (14.8 ft) long.

Chumash

The Chumash of southern California (U.S.) also carry Haplogroup D4h3a (up to 16% frequency). They lived on the mainland and the Channel Islands on the Santa Barbara Channel.

They, like the Chono built a "split-planked" canoe crafted with planks sewn together with cord and the seams were caulked with pitch. (is this a coincidence?). They called them Tomol.

The Gabrielino natives (close by) built identical ones, called te'aat.

The Tomol were light and measured between 12 and 24 feet long. (4 and 8 m). The Chumash also built rafts ("Balsas" in Spanish) from tule reed stalks tied into bundles 10 - 15 ft. long (3 - 5 m) and covered with tar to avoid rotting. They also built dugout canoes 20 - 30 ft. long (7 - 10 m). (9)(8)

Comments

We see that the D4h3a tends to have a coastal distribution along the Pacific Ocean from Canada to Tierra del Fuego: Canada, California, Ecuador, Southern Chile and Argentina.

The Yaghan, Alakaluf, Chono, Cayapa, Chumash and the man from On Your Knees Cave, all had this haplogroup.

They all built sea-going craft: rafts, dugout canoes, bark canoes and "sewn plank" canoes.

Other groups also built canoes or rafts; the Changos in Northern Chile, the Pericú, and the Aleuts, though we cannot tell if they also carried this rare haplogroup.

But, as we will see in our next post, it is also found quite far from the Western Coast: as it was detected in ancient remains from the Klunk Mound (Illinois) and in Shandong, China.

Furthermore, the Ainu people of Japan also built "lashed-canoes" -like the Chono and the Chumash (as well as dugouts), and they may have a link with the Amerindians.

Sources

(1) Perego, Ugo, A. et al., (2009). Distinctive Paleo-Indian Migration Routes from Beringia Marked by Two Rare mtDNA Haplogroups. Current Biology 19, 1-8, 2009 p. 2 doi 10.1016/j.cub.2008.11.058
(3) Bryson, George, (2008). DNA tracks ancient Alaskan's descendants. Anchorage Daily News, December 28, 2008.
(3) Francisco Torres, et al., (2009), Characterization of Genetic Markers of a Kawésqar Body and the Last Descendants of the Same Ethnic Group. www.promega.com, March. 2009
(4) Miotti, L. and M.C.Salemme, (2003). When Patagonia was colonized: people mobility at high latitudes during Pleistocene ⁄ Holocene transition. Quaternary International 109-10, 2003, 95-111, pages 97-98
(5) Vairo, Carlos P. Los Yamana. 1995, Zagier & Urruty
(6) Byron, J., (1996). Naufragio en las costas patagónicas. B. Aires: Ediciones del Sol
(7) FitzRoy, R., (1839). Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle between the years 1826 and 1836... London: Henry Colburn
(8) Jeanne E. Arnold. Credit Where Credit is Due: The History of the Chumash Oceangoing Plank Canoe. American Antiquity, 72(2), 2007, pp. 196-209
(9) Dee Travis Hudson, (1976). Chumash Canoes of Mission Santa Barbara: the Revolt of 1824. Journal of California Anthropology
(10) Alicia Alonso-Sagaseta de Ilúrdoz. Colecciones de arqueología y etnología de América de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Madrid Editorial Complutense, 2000
(11) See link. Estudio de ADN de pueblo chono revela que desciende de primeros pobladores de América. March 31, 2013

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2014 by Austin Whittall © 

Alakaluf Rock Art and Mylodon depiction

 

Location of Madre de Dios Island, and the Mylodon Cave close to Puerto Natales, Chile. Adapted by Austin Whittall from [2]

Looking for rock art depicting Homo erectus or similar archaic hominids, I found an interesting anthropomorphic drawing done by some Alakaluf natives which may depict a mylodon.

Mylodons in Patagonia

I have already posted on the Mylodon Cave where in the 1890s some apparently fresh remains of mylodon fur and dung were found. This led scientists to believe that the animal which should have become extinct at the end of the last Ice Age, was still alive somewhere out there in the Patagonian wilderness. It was only much later that the bones were dated and their old age proven (they dated to the Ice Age megafaunal extinction period).

However, at Madre de Dios Island, in the South Pacific Ocean, some ancient rock art, drawn by the Alakaluf canoe people, a strange figure was discovered: [1][2]

(A) Rock Art by Alakaluf natives at Madre de Dios Island, Chile. (B) Reproduction of a Mylodon, at Mylodon Cave, Puerto Natales, Chile. © 2010 by Austin Whittall

At first I thought it represented a person (actually the article describes it as "an anthropomorphic figure"[2], but it has a third "leg" right between its other two legs; which may either represent a well endowed male or, more likely, a tail (furthermore, the tail is longer than the two legs).

I am quite certain of this because most other drawings of naked men represent them with "normal" sized penis, as can be seen in the composite below which has several human figures (men) drawn at different locations in Patagonia:

Male Human Figures from different rock art sites in Patagonia.
Adapted from [3] by Austin Whittall

The Alakaluf rock art on the other hand is not human-like, actually the opposite: it has an "animal appearance", long and slender, long tailed, long dangling arms. It even looks hairy due to the dashed or dotted technique used in the drawing.

Anyway, I thought that it would be interesting since the Alakaluf natives lived in this region moving along the Patagonian fjords and sounds in their canoes. They could have easily come across an extant Mylodon in relatively recent times (the rock art is not yet dated) and drawn it.

Sources.

[1] Ultima Patagonia 2006 Rapport scientifique Expedition franco-chilienne et internationale a Madre de Dios (Magallanes, Chili). Expédition nationale 2006
de la Féderation Française de Speleologie. Association Centre Terre - www.centre-terre.fr. pp. 89+. Image is Fig. 20.
[2]Mairie Richard, Bernard Tourte, Stephane Jaillet, Joel Despain, Benjamin Lans, Franck Brehier, Luc-Henri Fage, Laurent Morel, et al., (2009). Geomorphic and archaeological feautes of coastal caves in Madre de Dios Archipielago (Patagonia, Chile)Proceedings of 15th International Congress of Speleology, Kerrville, Texas, USA, 19-26 july 2009. Symposium on Karst Islands.
[3] P. Bosch-Gimpera (1964). El Arte Rupestre de America. Anales de Antropología. Vol 1, No 1. pp. 30+. Fig. 9.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2011 International Year of Forests Copyright 2009-2011 by Austin Whittall © 

Kawtcho horned monster

 

Antropomorphic with horns. Maybe a representation of Kawtcho, Alakaluf divinity?
From [1].

Kawtcho, a mythical devil of the Alakaluf (also known as Kawesqar) canoe people of the southwestern coast of Chile, by the Pacific Ocean's mouth of the Strait of Magellan, was drawn by these people in their rock art.

Several paintings were discovered in a cave at the Madre de Dios Island, among which was one described as "an anthropomorphic horned figure which could correspond to the Alakaluf god Kawtcho". [1] or "a horned anthropomorphic figure could correspond to Kawtcho, the Kawesqar [Alakaluf]divinity". [2]

The image shown above, is painted with reddish colors and shows a horned being.

Could be a depiction of the stranged horned beings mentioned by Fitz Roy during his surveying expedition in that region in the early 1800s?

Perhaps it is Kawtcho, the mythical man-eating monster of the Alakaluf.

The "horns" are new for me, yet it was described as having its head covered with stiff hairs that resembled spikes (horn-like bristles?).


Sources.

[1] Ultima Patagonia 2006 Rapport scientifique Expedition franco-chilienne et internationale a Madre de Dios (Magallanes, Chili). Expédition nationale 2006
de la Féderation Française de Speleologie. Association Centre Terre - www.centre-terre.fr. pp. 89+. Image is Fig. 20.
[2]Mairie Richard, Bernard Tourte, Stephane Jaillet, Joel Despain, Benjamin Lans, Franck Brehier, Luc-Henri Fage, Laurent Morel, et al., (2009). Geomorphic and archaeological feautes of coastal caves in Madre de Dios Archipielago (Patagonia, Chile)Proceedings of 15th International Congress of Speleology, Kerrville, Texas, USA, 19-26 july 2009. Symposium on Karst Islands.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2011 International Year of Forests Copyright 2009-2011 by Austin Whittall © 

Patagonian Bigfoot?

 

I have been asked if there is a "Bigfoot" in Patagonia.

The correct answer is: no. Bigfoot is a North American creature. But, Patagonia does have its share of strange beings (dwarfs, monsters, the gigantic "Patagons") and these include "wild men" or hominids.

In today's post we will look into the Patagonian "Bigfoot".

The Fuegian Yagans feared several man-like "ogres" that lived in the forests: the Selk'nam's one was Hashi, very similar to the Yagan's "Hannush", also known as "wild men".

Reverend Thomas Bridges described Hannush as:

a sort of demented or wild man of the forests […] similar to man in shape, living alone or in groups, but without wife or children; they were always stalking, trying to come upon men, women or children to kill them.[1][2]

A very credible witness mentions them; English naturalist Charles Darwin (of evolutionary fame) who in 1833 visited Tierra del Fuego aboard Captain Robert FitzRoy’s H.M.S. “Beagle”. Darwin wrote:

What the "bad wild men" were, has always appeared to me most mysterious […] I should have thought that they were thieves who had been driven from their tribes; but other obscure speeches made me doubt this; I have sometimes imagined that the most probable explanation was that they were insane.[3]

FitzRoy also wrote about the “wild men”, pointing out their “black” color: “A great black man is supposed to be always wandering about the woods and mountains […] who cannot be escaped”.[4]

He also reported that among the Chono his pilot Mr. William Low recorded that: “[They] believe in an evil spirit, called Yaccy-ma, who they think is able to do all kinds of mischief, cause bad weather, famine, illness, &c.: he is supposed to be like an immense black man”.[4]

Could these evil dark (i.e. black) men be some kind of fur clad hominid?

“Mwono” the southern abominable snow man.

The Yagan’s neighbors, the Alakaluf, feared Mwono, a “snow man”. Theirs was a land of jagged fjords and islands where the glaciers reach the sea calving icebergs into treacherous waters. Mwono reigned supreme inhabiting “the summits of the mountains and glaciers” where his tracks could be found.[5]

Chilean ethnolinguist Oscar Aguilera believes that this “‘snow man’ is a fabulous and mythical animal that the [Alakaluf] say lives in the glaciers and whose footprints they say that they have seen”.[6] What these prints look like, unfortunately, no one knows.

Potentially dangerous, its reclusive nature made it quite harmless; Mwono was a reclusive and peaceful being that would only hurt those who dared to enter his territory.[7]

Further north, the Mapuche believed in several gigantic beings; one was the Trauko -do not mistake with Chiloé’s Trauco dwarf which we will describe in a future post- which dwelled along the banks of Collón Curá River -stone mask in Mapuche language- in Neuquén (40°00’ S, 70°49’ W). This was a monster, a “terrible giant, man eater” described as hairy and having “a very long beard and his hair that seemed like rush stalks were fire red color”.[8]

Their myths also included the Chilludo, Carcancho and Huitanalhue.

The Chilludo is a very large and hairy creature. A bearded “bogey man”. Ape-like and covered with a long sheep-like fleece, it may be frightening, but is said to be harmless. It can be found in the isolated mountain regions of northern Patagonia in Chile and in western Neuquén province, Argentina.[9]

The Carcancho. These hairy men led a solitary existence in the mountains and meadows feeding on tubers. They could measure up to 2 m (6 ft. 7 in.) tall in the mountains, but were dwarfish (1 m – 3.3 ft.) in the lowlands, where they lived burrowing underground. This may indicate that they were two different kinds of being or that perhaps they were not men but some kind of wild animal.

They walked in the snow and their large foot-prints were the only clues of their existence (exactly like the Mwono but 2.000 km further towards the north - 1,240 mi.).[10]

Huitranalhue is a kind of undead, a zombie, described as a big man, which like a vampire attacked people to drink their blood or eat their flesh.[11] Its name means “alien ghost” (huitran = stranger, alien; alhue = spirit, ghost).

This hermit carried a wooden sword (perhaps a club), and did not speak. It was easily concealed as it kept to the forest and was dressed in dark clothes (perhaps animal furs). Later the Mapuche would “Europeanize” it giving it the appearance of a well groomed Spaniard riding a horse.

I have already mentioned the "Tailed men" of Patagonia, which are another variety of "primitive men".

Wild men, what were they?

We could, as Darwin, believe that these “wild men” were just that, crazy wild men; it is also very plausible that the Hannush and the Hashi were simply “homeless” Yagans living alone in a very harsh environment or even displaced Selk’nam, Alakaluf or Haush who had wandered into their enemies’ territory and tried to remain concealed to avoid attack and if necessary for survival, murdered any potential threats.

Apes and Homo erectus

Another option, not as far-fetched as believing that wild men are enormous bipedal apes that evolved separately in America, involves our distant relative, Homo erectus, which became extinct worldwide when modern humans, Homo sapiens, moved out of Africa about 100,000 years ago.

Erectus moved out of Africa and spread into Asia about 1.2 million years ago. There are no traces of erectus in America, so we do not know if they reached this continent.

However, it may be possible (though this theory is unproven)that H. erectus, our distant ancestor, entered and settled in America, adapting to its particular environment and surviving there for 200,000 years in splendid isolation until the arrival of modern men. An event that would have sealed H. erectus fate as it did all over the world. Unable to compete with man they disappeared.

Club wielding, fur clad H. erectus, with perhaps a limited capability for vocalization could easily explain all of these mythical wild men (Chilludo, Carcancho, Huitranalhue, etc.), and account for the dark "black" wild men reported by FitzRoy and Darwin.

Bibliography.

[1] Bridges, T., (1893). La Tierra del Fuego y sus habitantes. Informe de Thomas Bridges publicado por el Instituto Geográfico Argentino. B. Aires: Instituto Geográfico Argentino. 06-08.1893.
[2] Bridges, T., (1998). Los indios del último confin. Sus escritos para la South American Missionary Society. Ushuaia: Zaguier & Urruty Publications. pp. 152.
[3] Darwin, C., (1987). The Voyage of the Beagle. Ware: Woodsworth Editions. pp. 205.
[4] FitzRoy, R., (1839). Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle between the years 1826 and 1836…. London: Henry Colburn. v. ii. pp. 180+ and pp. 191.
[5] Emperaire, J., (1963). Los Nómades del Mar. Santiago: Ediciones de la Universidad de Chile. pp. 156.
[6] Aguilera F., Lenguas y culturas de Chile – Kawéscar. Online.
[7] Grebe, M., (1974). La música alacalufe: aculturación y cambio estilístico. Revista musical chilena. Nº 126-127 pp. 80-111.
[8] Koessler-Ilg, B., (2000). Op Cit. pp. 71.
[9] Eberhart, G., (2002). Misterious Creatures: A guide to Cryptozoology. S. Barbara: ABC Clio. pp. 82.
[10] Batic, L., (2005). Seres mitológicos argentinos. Diario 1. Patagonia. B. Aires: Ed. Albatros. pp. 119.



Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters

Fuegian Beasts - Part 2

 

Yagan's “Cushpij”

The second group of Fuegians, the Yagan boat people also had their own “clawed” beasts stalking them; they believed in the aggressive Kíshpix (or Cushpij), a “spirit” that was “evil and with a horrible shape”[1] and which, according to Lucas Bridges, “terrified them”.[2]

Besides Cushpij, there were other monsters such as the one that lived in a cave on Gable Island, the largest in the Beagle Channel [54°53’ S, 67°29’ W]. It was “a monster, a sea lion or seal that attacked anyone who came close to the island, sinking their canoes and eating those on board”; it was finally slayed by a young Yagan hero named Umoara.[3]

He also killed another monster, a cruel giant that kidnapped women (this seemed to have been a common trait among the Patagonian monsters) and lived on Hoste Island; its only weak spot was its ankle.[3] This Achillean ankle is a remarkable coincidence, identical to that of another monster, feared by the Aonikenk of southern Patagonia: Oókempam, of whom we will about in our next post, tomorrow.

See map here with Gable and Host islands.

Alakaluf: “Ayayema” and “Kawtcho”

The Alakaluf boat men of the western coast of Tierra del Fuego and southern Chile also had their own monstrous beings. Besides their relatively benign “snow man” Mwono, there were others not so harmless.

One of them was Ayayema that hunted prowling in the night; during daytime it lived in a bog called “Papi” and emerged when darkness fell stalking along the shore concealed by the gloomy thick forests. It also had a horrid stench, smelling like rot.[4]

Another beast was Kawtcho; a nocturnal spirit that also had a putrid smell that was so strong that it awoke the dogs and made them howl. It was like a very tall man with a gigantic brawny body and sharp claws. Its head was covered with “hair hard and straight as nails”.[4] During the day, just like the Mapuche’s evil púlli fucha, it walked under the ground -a cave perhaps or a burrowing creature?- and at night, like Ayayema, it would lurk along the beaches, coming upon its solitary victims from behind (it only attacked from the rear) emptying their eyes out of their sockets and killing them.

They Alakaluf avoided lighting fires in the open at night not to disclose the location of their campsites to both Kawtcho and Ayayema and only dared to do so inside their huts, to keep the beasts out, because both feared light.[4]

These mythical Fuegian creatures share many similarities with those of the mainland’s Tehuelche people, as we will see in the next post: they were large, dangerous, man-eating, arrow-proof; they were fearsome creatures.

Bibliography.

[1] Orquera, L. and Piana, E., (2003). Yáana Canoeros marinos de Tierra del Fuego. Ushuaia. Museo del Fin del Mundo, Biblioteca Virtual.
[2] Bridges, L., (2008). Op. Cit. pp. 159.
[3] Martial, L., (2005). Mision al Cabo de Hornos, la expedición científica francesa en la Romanche Julio de 1882 a setiembre de 1883. Ushuaia: Zaguier & Urruty Publications. pp.245-246.
[4] Emperaire, J. and Oyarzún, L., (2002). Los nomades del mar. Santiago: Lom Ed. pp. 299-300 & 305.


Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters

Patagonian natives - Part 1

 

In our previous entry we mention two native groups, the Tehuelche and the Selk'nam, but we have not yet given a background on the people who originally lived in Patagonia.

Before the arrival of Europeans in the early sixteenth century, Patagonia was inhabited by several groups of American natives whose ancestors, the “Paleo-Indians” had settled there some thirty thousand years ago or even earlier.

The oldest dated remains of these first inhabitants are from the end of the last Ice Age about 11,000 years before the present (BP).

Tehuelche.
Were the descendents of the ancient Patagonian Paleo-Indians. The name was given to them by the Mapuche natives (who lived in northern Patagonia in both Chile and Argentina), and meant “fierce people”.
We group them into two distinct groups, each with cultural and linguistic differences: the Northern Tehuelche (Günnuna Kenna or Gennakenk – which, in their language meant “people”) and the Southern Tehuelche. The region between the Senguer, Chubut and Chico rivers was a flexible border between these groups.

Northern Tehuelche. Gradually, during the XVIIth century these northernmost Tehuelche expanded further north out of Patagonia, across the Negro and Colorado rivers and into the Pampas where they replaced the original natives of Buenos Aires province and became known as the “Pampas” or “Puelche” (the latter, in Mapudungun -the Mapuche language- means “Eastern people”).
In the Pampas they encountered vast quantities of free roaming wild cattle and also the horse which the Spaniards had bought to America. The horse was quickly adopted, and through the Puelche it quickly spread south into the heart of Patagonia.
The original core of the Gennakenk continued living in Patagonia between the Negro and Chubut rivers until their demise in the late nineteenth century.
There was yet another smaller group, on the flanks of the Andes in the Argentine provinces of Chubut and Rio Negro. They were usually at war with the Mapuche who frequently invaded their territory. They were known as the “Chüwach a Künna” (people at the edge of the mountains) and little is known of them.

Map showing territories originally occupied by the Patagonian natives (Click to Enlarge)

Southern Tehuelche. They called themselves “Chonik”, which in their language meant “us, the men”. Originally they were “foot Indians” and it was not until the late XVIIth and early XIXth centuries that they adopted the horse. The Southern Tehuelche were divided into two separate sub-groups, very similar except for their language:

• Teushen (Boreal Southern Tehuelche); they lived in the north, between the Santa Cruz and Chubut rivers.
• Aonikenk or Aonek'enk (Austral Southern Tehuelche), which meant “people of the South”. They lived in the southern area, between the Santa Cruz River and the Strait of Magellan.

Fuegian natives.
Finally, Tierra del Fuego Island, inhabited by four groups all of which have now disappeared; each of them remarkably adapted and specialized to their own habitat.
The Selk’nam (or Ona), and the Haush (or Haus) were “foot Indians” who never adopted an equestrian way of life because horses never reached their island. The Selk’nam were very closely related to the Tehuelche in culture and language; they had become separated from them when the sea level rose and flooded the Strait of Magellan, isolating them on Tierra del Fuego.

The Haush were different and may have descended from the earliest humans to reach the southernmost tip of the Americas 13,000 years ago.

The other Fuegian natives were the “Boat people”, who had a highly developed way of life adapted to living on the sea coast; they moved around in canoes. These people were the Yagan (Yámana), who lived in the Fuegian channels and islands and were the southernmost people in the whole world; and the Alakaluf (or Kawesqar) who lived in the islands of southwestern Patagonia to the north and west of the Yagans. Both had a similar lifestyle differing only in their language.

A third group of boat people were the Chono; they were not Fuegian for they lived nearly 2.000 km (1,200 mi.) further north, around the Chonos Archipelago and Chiloé island –where they were absorbed by the Huilliche (relatives of the Mapuche). Little is known about them because they died out before the XIXth century.

In another post we mention the Mapuche people.


Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters