The Selknam are an Indian people who led a nomadic lifestyle and inhabited the territory of Tierra del Fuego for 7000 years. The main occupations for these people were hunting, gathering and fishing.
The Selknams did not have leaders, the sages ("fathers of the world") were considered the main ones, who, as it was assumed, could influence people, weather and events. The most sacred rite of the tribe was associated with coming of age. To conduct it, adult men painted bodies with red, black and white paint, and traditional clothes made of skins were replaced with costumes made of tree bark, posing as terrible spirits. Over the course of several days or even weeks, they performed an elaborate initiation rite to make boys become men.
One of the last such ceremonies took place in 1920. It was documented by missionary Martin Gusinde. After becoming a priest in Germany in 1911, he hoped to go as a missionary to the exotic tribes of Guinea. But the management sent him to Chile to teach at a German school in Santiago. However, experiencing an increased interest in ethnology and anthropology, for several years Gusinde went on expeditions to Tierra del Fuego, to the extreme south of Chile and Argentina.
In December 1918, Martin Gusinde first visited Isla Grande, an island in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. The meeting with archaic tribes caused (in his words) "indescribable delight" and "youthful dreams". Selknams, yagans and alakalufs (kaveskars) were captured in Gusinda's photographs. The missionary visited the region in 1918-1924 and observed the lifestyle of the Fuegians, who were then already on the brink of extinction.
Soon the Indians of Tierra del Fuego were exterminated by European mercenaries with the consent of the Argentine government. The destruction of the Selknams is one of the most monstrous and little-known genocides in the history of mankind. The disappeared indigenous population is illustrated by photographs by Martin Gusinde.
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