The oldest and smallest distinct people of Tierra del Fuego, the Haush (Manek'enk) inhabited the isolated Mitre Peninsula in the island's southeast, hunting guanaco and gathering shellfish; linguistically and culturally related to but distinct from the Selk'nam, who progressively displaced them from better hunting grounds in the centuries before European contact.
Not an ending: individual and family-line Haush identity persisted far longer than the society itself, carried through intermarriage into a joint Selk'nam-Haush community. Antonio Norberto Vera Illigoyen, a self-identified Haush descendant, served as cacique of the 'Comunidad Rafaela Ishton' in Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, until his death on 6 January 2012 at age 90; his son Horacio Eugenio Vera represents 'la nación haush' today on Argentina's Consejo Educativo Autónomo de los Pueblos Indígenas. No distinct Haush land base was ever recognised, however — descendants live within the shared Selk'nam-descended community rather than on ground titled to the Haush specifically.
Contains first-hand observation of the Haush of the Mitre Peninsula alongside the Selk'nam and Yámana, among the only substantial historical records of this small, little-documented people.