Alacalufe people

The Kawésqar or Kaweskar, also called Alacaluf or Halakwulup (meaning "mussel eater" in Yaghan), are a South American people who live in the Chilean Patagonia, specifically in the Brunswick Peninsula, and Wellington, Santa Inés, and Desolación islands of the western area of Tierra del Fuego. Their traditional language is known as Kawésqar; it is endangered as few native speakers survive.

Etymology

The English and other Europeans initially adopted the name that the Yahgan, a competing indigenous tribe whom they met first in central and southern Tierra del Fuego, used for these people: Alacaluf or Halakwulup (meaning "mussel eater" in Yaghan). Their own name for themselves (autonym) is Kawésqar.

Economy

Like the Yahgan in southern Chile and Argentina, the Kawésqar were a nomadic seafaring people, called canoe-people by some anthropologists. They made canoes that were eight to nine meters long and one meter wide, which would hold a family and its dog. They continued this fishing, nomadic practice until the twentieth century, when they were moved into settlements on land. Because of their maritime culture, the Kawésqar have never farmed the land.