56 BUBEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 03 



cultural ancestry, especially if we consider them in conjunction with 

 the somatological and linguistic resemblances. 



From the foregoing linguistic, somatological, and cultural evidence, 

 we may fairly conclude that the relationship between the Onas and 

 Tehuelches, although not as close as is sometimes supposed, is never- 

 theless established as real. The Onas must have parted company 

 with their cousins of the mainland many generations and probably 

 many centuries ago, or else both have descended from a common 

 stock now extinct. The Onas have apparently remained fairly sta- 

 tionary in culture, while the Tehuelches have undergone radical 

 changes through contact with their northern neighbors. 



The Onas are said to have a tradition that they came afoot from 

 a far country of great prairies and that a great cataclysm opened 

 up the Strait of Magellan and so prevented their return (Beauvoir, h, 

 178, 201-202). Whether tliis tradition has back of it a foundation 

 in fact or whether the Onas on the contrary reached their present 

 habitat in times posterior to the formation of the Strait can not be 

 decided even probably in the present state of the evidence. 



Present Condition op Onas 



The Onas were formerly much more numerous than they now are. 

 Earlier estimates differ very much. Sr. Popper came into contact 

 with about 600 Onas on his second expedition in 1891 (d, 162) and 

 estimated their total number at about 2,000 (ibid,). Dr. Gasperi 

 was informed by Mr. Lucas Bridges in 1912-13 that there were about 

 300 survivors of the tribe, while the Salesians' estimate of 1909-1911 

 was 350 (Cojazzi, 16). 



The Onas have been outrageously treated by many of the white 

 settlers, herders, and gold seekers who began to invade their terri- 

 tory in the seventies and eighties of the last century. Then, too, 

 internal feuds have brought down many victims; Mr. Lucas Bridges, 

 in a letter dated February 11, 1899, and c^uoted by Mr. Young (1900 

 ed., 61 ; 1905 ed., 66), states that there are few Ona men over 30 years 

 of age who have not kiUed one of their own people in revenge. These 

 and other causes have more than decimated this interesting tribe 

 (cf. Gasperi). 



They have been almost entirely driven from the northern half of 

 their foimier domain. A number work on the ranches of the Bridges 

 brothers; more are at Rio Grande, Lake Fagnano, and Dawson 

 Island missions; the remainder are scattered over the territory south 

 of the Rio Grande. 



The nearly extinct subtribe, the Manekenkn, were formerly fairly 

 numerous, to judge from their possession of a distinct dialect and 

 from the accounts of Sr. Lista, Dr. Segers, and the Rev. Mr. Bridges, 

 as well as from those of the earlier explorers. Mr. Thomas Bridges, 



