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The Beginning of the Selk’nam Extermination

Thus, the saddest chapter in the Selk’nam’s history begins. The ranching occupation became the center of controversy in the Magellanic colony. The authorities were certainly aware of the situation of the indigenous group, however, their rulings sided with the ranchers’ cause rather than the Selk’nam. Notably, the mentality of the time did not include indigenous groups in its view of a world based on “progress” and “civilization”. Therefore, the ranchers typically excercised their own judgement, including in financing genocidal campaigns. Considerable numbers of foreign men were hired and quantities of arms were imported for these campaigns, with the goal of making the Selk’nam disappear at any cost. In the minds of farmers and businessmen, any cost was acceptable as the Selk’nam were a major obstacle to the success of their investments. The accuracy of the events was confirmed by the farm employees themselves who, when subjected to an indictment, confirmed that the expeditions against the indigenous group were much more routine practices than many thought.

If the names of those who acted in the exterminating expeditions are well known, little is mentioned of the intellectual authors of said actions. These individuals included many ranch owners, who were the direct superiors of the employees that participated in the ventures. These figures include Mauricio Braun, who acknowledged having financed some campaigns, justifying them as only intending to protect his investments (he was the boss of another known exterminator, Alexander A. Cameron). Another figure is the father-in-law of Mauricio Braun, José Menéndez Menéndez, one of the men who undoubetdely acted with the most severity against the Selk’nam in the Argentine territory of Tierra del Fuego. Known for being the owner of two cattle ranches that occupied more than 200,000 hectares in the center of Selk’nam territory, Menéndez was the boss of Alexander Mac Lennan. Mac Lennan or “Chanco Colorado,” known widely as a murderer of indigenous people, participated in the massacre at Cabo Penas, where 17 indigenous people died. When he retired after 12 years of service, Menéndez gave Mac Lennan a valuable gold watch in recognition of his outstanding service.

The shareholders of the Company for the Exploitation of Tierra de Fuego (Sociedad Explotadora de Tierra de Fuego) actively tried to hide details from the public. This was not only a means for the company to avoid questioning but also a strategy to lower its widely-known controversial profile. Special attention was paid to these events after the intervention of the Salesians, who did not hesitate to reproach the actions of the farmers.

Beginning in the last decade of the 1890s, the situation of the Selk’nam became particularly severe. As the territories of the north began to be largely occupied by farms, many indigenous people, besieged by hunger and persecuted by white people, started to flee towards the extreme south of the island. This region was inhabited by groups who had a strong sense of ownership over the land. Consequently, the fights for control of territory became increasingly intense and tensions grew as livestock occupation became more abundant in the north of the island. The situation of the Selk’nam would become notably more severe once religious missions became established. From these missions came illnesses that were responsible for annihilating the portion of the population that managed to survive their clashes with whites.

Later conflicts between governor Manuel Señoret and the head of the Salesian mission José Fagnano did nothing more than make the condition of the Selk’nam more grave. Long disputes between civil authorities and priests did not allow a satisfactory solution to the indigenous issue to be reached. Governor Señoret was in favor of the rancher’s cause, evident in his disinterest in supervising the incidents that took place in Tierra del Fuego. While he was undoubtedly the highest civilian authority in the area, he had no desire to avoid the publicly known massacres.

The Trial of the Genocide

Years later, justice for the conflict was attempted through the indictment (1895-1904) by Judge Waldo Seguel. This process made it clear that the hunting of indigenous people perpetrated in Tierra del Fuego was not just a popular myth. Rather, it was a scheme of the mass capture and removal of indigenous people, and their transfer to Punta Arenas, with the purpose of distributing them within the colony. It was judged that these acts were proposed by ranchers, but the civil authorities were complicit, regarding the genocide as a solution to the indigenous issue.

The judicial process, however, found only a few farmworkers to be at fault, who were released just a few months after the trial. The intellectual authors of the expeditions, such as owners and stakeholders of the farms Mauricio Braun, José Menéndez Menéndez, Rodolfo Stubenrauch, and Peter H. Mac Clelland, were never fairly prosecuted. Even official figures and civil servants, like governor Señoret and José Contardi, who theoretically had the greatest responsibility to guard the sanctity of the law, were never investigated. The book “Harassment Inflicted on the Indigenous People of Tierra de la Fuego” (“Vejámenes inferidos a los indígenas de Tierra del Fuego”), from author Carlos Vega Delgado, makes evident that Judge Waldo Seguel covered for ranchers who were guilty of genocide. The judge falsely recorded that he could not obtain a statement from the Selk’nam individuals who witnessed the genocide because there were no translators between the two languages. However, such translators did exist, such as various priests of the Salesian mission and sisters of María Auxiliadora who had learned the native dialect in the missions, as well as Spanish-speaking Selk’nams, like Tenenésk, Covadonga Ona, and even a deacon of the church.