USHUAIA: HISTORY & NATIVES

THE ORIGINS OF NAME USHUAIA
Then the first white men arrived to this area, they found out that the natives referred to this beautiful bay well protected against the winds and surrounded by mountains as "Ooshooia" or "Ouchouaya". The first persons who got in touch with the natives were English speaking sailors and missionaries; therefore the right pronunciation was "Ushuuaia".
Finally the name become "Ushuaia" both for the bay and for the town that started growing around it, until it become the southernmost city in the world.
What is the meaning of this word for the Yamana natives? It simply meant "bay penetrating Westwards" or "bay towards the end " . This description turned out very accurate.

HISTORY OF USHUAIA
During the sixteenth century and after living in the area for 6000 years, the southernmost inhabitants in the earth got in touch for the very first time with European expeditions.
At the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth, the outer coasts of the Magellan-fuegian archipelago were visited by sea lion hunters and members of different expeditions, for example Captain Fitz Roy, commanding the Beagle brigantine, who discovered the channel named after him.

The history of Ushuaia begins about 1869 when the Anglican missionary Stirling arrived on board the Allen Gardiner schooner, in order to evangelize the natives. This task was followed afterwards by reverend Thomas Bridges.
In 1882 president Roca put forward the bill of "Penal colony for South of Republic", so as to solve the penitentiary problem, start the population and thus assure the sovereignty in these (for them) remote sites.

On September 1884 the South Atlantic Expeditionary Division commanded by Colonel Augusto Lasserre, arrived at Ushuaia bay so as to set a coast guard and it is then when the national flag was officially hoisted for the first time in this area. The date October 12th, same year, was officially declared the birthday of Ushuaia, today the capital of the province.

A military prison was set up in San Juan de Salvamento (in The Staten Island, to the East), which was them transferred to Golondrina bay in 1911 merged with the jail in Ushuaia, by a presidential decree-law.

It is impossible to imagine Ushuaia without the prison. Thanks to prisoners' labour the town had electricity very early, the same as the pier, the post office and the road building. The workshops, such as the printing house, photography, the tailoring, the shoe shop, carpenter's shop, medical service and drugstore, filled the population's demands which by that time was far from the main supply centre (Buenos Aires), from where the ships came once a month.

The national government decided to close the prison in 1947 and the Navy Department took control of the building. By that time the population of Ushuaia had already increased to 2182 inhabitants.

The quiet life in the town was changed when the immigrants began coming from different countries of the world, such as Croatia, Italy, Spain, Lebanon, etc., most of them decided to stay here for ever after finishing the job they came to do (settling a factory of sardine canning or house building). The 70´s marked another stage in the history of Ushuaia with the promulgation of the industrial law, which provided customs benefits in order to encourage the regional economy. Many Argentinean coming from other provinces were attracted by the possibilities of finding a job and save money.
Little by little the city was growing...

NATIVES OF USHUAIA AREA AND TIERRA DEL FUEGO ISLAND
30.000 years ago, according to a wide spread theory, during one of the big glaciations that covered the planet, man crossed the Bering Strait (from Asia to North America), when the level of the sea was below the present one. These groups started moving along the American continent during the following centuries, until they arrived at its southern extreme, 12.600 years ago.

When the first Europeans arrived, they found an archipelago inhabited by about 10.000 natives who belonged to different groups: selk'nam and manek'enk (pedestrian nomad) and yamana and alakaluf (canoeist nomad). Fifty years later there were just 350 of them.
Among the reasons of their disappearance, we find:

· the overexploitation of marine mammals, that deprived them of their main source of feeding.
· the contagion of plagues and diseases brought by white man.
· their confinement in closed communities.
· the expropriation of their lands due to the introduction of sheep.

YAMANA: they named themselves: YAMANA that means "alive or man" Bridges named them YAGHAN, because of the Murray Channel (Yahga - Shaga) placed in the middle of their territory. They occupied both sides of the Beagle Channel and adjacent channels as far as Cape Horn.
They used to eat sea lions because of its high fat content, penguins, whales, fish and shellfish, also trapped birds and used to pick up mushrooms, fruits and roots. Strong and short, they had a wide and long thorax (in comparison to lower extremities), robust arms and thin bent legs. They wore just a sea lion's or otter's fur coat, that covered their back; women also wore a sex cover. Families stayed most of the time on canoes (made out of bark of tall deciduous and evergreen beeches) hunting and fishing, seldom coming inland. Fire used to burn in the centre of the boat, placed on rocks, clay and soil.

SELK'NAM: this tribe lived in the central and northern area of the Island, they are known as ONAS, yamana word that means "people or northern wind". The mountain range was a natural frontier for their territories towards south. They depended, basically on the guanaco hunting, they caught rodents as a complement, and occasionally birds. When reaching the coast, they picked up mollusks and beached marine mammals. In summer they ate a big variety of plants. Men had a harmonious body and big muscular development. On the contrary, women were shorter and fatter. They wore one or two guanacos's leathers to wrap themselves. When camping, they used a tent built with guanaco's fur supported with sticks, then it was folded and carried on their backs (this task was in charge of women).

HASSH: they called themselves MANEK'ENK and lived in the Mitre peninsula area. Their habits were similar to the selk'man's: they hunted guanacos, foxes and birds, but also obtained resources from the coasts like the Yamanas. Their weapons were: the gaff, the bow and the arrow.

ALAKALUF: they settled on Brecknock Peninsula (Chile) northwards, which included most of the Chilean island and part of the Main Island. Their main activity was fishing, moving constantly from one place to the other, looking for sea lions, fish and penguins. The southern area of their territory, being very windy, cold, rainy, with high mountains and huge glaciers, arose no interest as far as white man was concerned. Therefore, the extinction of these natives was slower than the rest.

DAY 1 - Arrival to Ushuaia Airport and transfer to hotel. 03 nts of accommodation with breakfast

DAY 2 - Excursion to Tierra del Fuego National Park. Return to the city and take a Beagle Channel Navigation to see Isla de los Pàjaros, Isla de los Lobos and Faro Les Eclareirs.

DAY 3 - Excursion to Fagnano and Escondido Lakes

DAY 4 - Transfer to airport

This is a basic program to visit Ushuaia Area. Please visit our tour list to see more tours combining this area and others place in Argentina and Chile

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