The Selk´nam people called its territory, where they lived over 10.000 years ago, Karukinka, the same land that the Spaniards called Land of Smoke and Later Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire), due to the fires lit by the natives at night and were seen from the sea by the sailors.
The Selk´nam explained this fact through legends that narrate how their ancestors became isolated when the water rose, permanently separating them from their continental brothers.
Two religious organizations created reservations for the surviving natives: one on Dawson Island and another in Ushuaia. The first was created by a Salesian missionary, he managed to bring together close to 1.000 Selk´nam, but it was closed in 1912.
In only eight years, the population was reduced to only 270 natives, who survived under the protection of the Anglican Bridges brothers, as verified by the anthropologist Martin Gusinde in 1920.