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Selk'nam

1500 BC – present
Native nationSouth America

Guanaco-hunting people of the main island of Tierra del Fuego (Isla Grande), all but destroyed by an 1880s-1900s bounty-hunting genocide; though the last Selk'nam of unmixed ancestry, Ángela Loij, died in 1974, organized descendant communities are now legally recognized as an Indigenous people in both Argentina (1994) and Chile (2023).

Annihilated within a generation by the 1880s-1900s sheep-ranch bounty killings, disease and gold-rush displacement — among history's clearest genocides; a handful of mixed descendants survive in 2026.

Borders in 2026 · drawn from 4 sourced border frames
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Borders over time

The atlas holds 4 border frames for Selk'nam — the shape you scrub through changes in 1500 BC · 1520 · 1880 · 1911.

Moments from the Chronicle

Further reading

Sources