Patagon and Fuegan Indians, the Tehuelches et Kaweskars
 Well before the arrival of the first navigators at the beginning of the 16th century, Patagonia (and the Tierra del Fuego) was inhabited by several Indian tribes who roamed the land as well as the seas. Considered the "vilest savages" of all, they are now extinct. They, however, were and still are the very soul of Patagonia. One of the goals of the expedition is to follow the trail of these extinct tribes.
At the end of the last minor ice age, 9,000 years ago, several tribes progressively settled themselves in the South of Patagonia and on Tierra del Fuego.

These tribes lived sometimes very close to each other and had similar ways of life but rarely mingled.

On land lived the Selk’nam (Land of Fire) andthe Tehuelches (south Patagonia). Yamanas (south Land of Fire) and Alakalufs (north) was were sea nomads.
Alakalufs and Yamanas, Tribes on Canoes

Both tribes were nomads. They mainly lived on the sea, staying in there canoes on which they permanently kept fires burning. Their main resources were shells and fish.

Yamanas occupied South of Tierra del Fuego and the Cape Horn while Alakalufs roamed the Magellan Straits and, through the fjords, spread right up to Wellington Island where now stands Perto Den at the edge of Hielo Continental.

It is most probable that the most daring canoed across the lower parts of Hielo Continental to steal women from the Tehuelches who lived on the Eastern steppes.

The ocean part of our trajectory will cover the ancient territories of the Alakalufs.

- Read «The Nomads of the Sea» by José Emperaire or «Which remembers the men…» by Jean Raspail.
Tehuelches and Selk’nam, Nomads on Land

Taller than the canoe people, these Indians are at the origins of the Patagon Giants myth. They lived from hunting and picking. Selk’nam occupied the Tierra del Fuego while Tehuelches spread in small groups along the Hielo Continental, from the Magellan Straits right up to where the town of Bariloche now stands.

Just as we will follow the Alakalufs on sea, we shall follow the trails of this nomadic tribe and its legends on land.
The discovery of the straits by Magellan in 1520 followed by the arrival of new settlers then missionaries gradually decimated the Indian population. Massacred for land or killed by unknown viruses, only a hand-full were still alive at the beginning of the 20th century, only to die a few years later. Often considered godless savages, low men or dirty and unskilled, these Indians have been hugely under-estimated and therefore been little studied.

It is only in these last few years that scarce but new information has helped to trigger the process of rehabilitating them but there is still much to learn. One of the aims of Hielo Continental 2009 is to better understand how they lived and their reasons for populating this area of the globe, whether on land or on sea.

This will be achieved by living several months in a manner close to their nomadic way of life...
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