Patagonian Tribes: Unusual Influences

The tribes of the Patagonia region on the tip of Argentina are collectively called Tehuelche. Interestingly, this word means "fierce people" and the meaning of "Patagonia" is "big feet."  It is said that it got the name for the large boots the people wore. 

Early explorers to this region declared the Native People were giants. 

These unusual tribes reportedly showed up in the area around 14,500 years and in the three ages of their tool making, the earliest one was "highly-sized rock tools." Where do you suppose they got these big tools back then? Others who were already here? Giants? 

Selk'nam, aka "Ona People," were an indigenous people from the tip of Argentina in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego Islands.  The Yaghan were another tribe that was considered to be not related to Native American tribes' origins. It is believed they were related to Australian aborigines or a common ancestor based upon their skull shape. The Yaghan were an interesting people who could dive in the sub-Antarctic waters and sleep outdoors naked in the icy temperatures. 

Here's something interesting - below is a chart showing some of the Selk'nam costumes.

Some of these shapes we see in ancient petroglyphs in North America. 

Tule Lake, CA

Colorado

Newspaper Rock, Utah

Utah

Source:  We find Polynesian anthropological elements mixed with the Patagonian, Polynesian culture among the Calchaqui and old Peruvian culture. 

In the 1520s when Magellon was exploring the region one of his chroniclers reported this statement (which has ever since been under great ridicule) ""One day we suddenly saw a naked man of giant stature on the shore of the port, dancing, singing, and throwing dust on his head. The captain-general [i.e., Magellan] sent one of our men to the giant so that he might perform the same actions as a sign of peace. Having done that, the man led the giant to an islet where the captain-general was waiting. When the giant was in the captain-general's and our presence he marveled greatly, and made signs with one finger raised upward, believing that we had come from the sky. He was so tall that we reached only to his waist, and he was well proportioned..."

Source:  Even more fascinating than their incredible cold tolerance is the Yaghans’ cultural legacy. Astonishingly, the Yaghans’ first ancestors may have been Australian Aborigines! According to Brazilian anthropologist Walter Neves, the earliest known human skulls in South America, from 12,000 to 6,000 years old, are similar to those of indigenous Australians. They do not resemble those of the Clovis people, who crossed into North America from Siberia via the Bering Land Bridge around 15,000 years ago, and are generally considered the ancestors of all indigenous New World peoples. Circumstantial evidence that Australians may have reached South America first also includes bones painted with red ochre (like the Aboriginal Lake Mungo remains), and the rock shelters of Pedra Furada in Brazil, which contain stone artifacts dated as old as 60,000 years (roughly the same age as the first signs of human activity in Australia).

Conclusion

It would appear that Coastal Native people in the Americas are worth a close study. The Karankawa of Texas, the Natives in the Baja Mexico region, the tip of Argentina/Chile have interesting characteristics that make them uniquely influenced by other cultures/origins. A coastal-living seafaring tribe shows a tendency to continue a life they were raised on and Polynesians were most excellent seafarers and coastal living people.

Some of the other influences found among the Patagonian tribes are the very real and possible influence of contact with giants who appear to have made a wide sweep through the South Pacific and into Peru and the Americas by sea. 

There is something to be said about the earliest humans in America. It would seem that we had a wide variety of people from different areas entering here over 10,000 years ago and that certainly does not make this a particularly "New World."