The Selk'nam, also known as the Onawo or Ona people were an indigenous people in the Patagonian region of southern Argentina and Chile, including the Tierra del Fuego islands.
They were one of the last aboriginal groups in South America to be reached by Westerners in the late 19th century, when the Argentine and Chilean governments began efforts to explore and integrate Tierra del Fuego (literally, the "land of fire" based on early European explorers observing Selk'nam smoke from their bonfires).
While the Selk'nam are closely associated with habitation of the northeastern area of Tierra del Fuego, their early origins are likely from the mainland, whence they departed by canoe across the Strait of Magellan. Their territory in the early Holocene likely ranged as far as the Cerro Benitez area of the Cerro Toro mountain range, both in Chile.
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