The Story of an Yámana Native

 Orundellico, better known as Jemmy Button, was an aborigine from the Yaghan or Yámana Tribe. He lived in Wulaia, a harbor located near Murray Canal, in Chile's Austral Zone. Yaghan were nomads that travelled in canoes, they were marine collecters. 

On April, 11st of 1830, Captain Robert Fitz-Roy was exploring the zone, then called "Terra Icongnita Australis" (now is "Tierra del Fuego"), in HMS Beagle Ship. He met some fueguians who changed fish for some buttons and tabs, then they continued the expedition, but they found another group of aborigines that also wanted to change fish for buttons, but this time one of the natives got into the ship and after he had been paid for a mother of pearl button. The native was called James Button. He recived this name, because of the price that they had to pay for him. 

But he was not the only one. On April, 13rd the ship arrived Beagle where there were three fuegians that Fitz-Roy had taken from the west as a slay vers. The captain decided to take this four natives to England, to be educated and then they had to come back home. Fueguians were called: York Minster, Jemmy Button, Fuegia Basket and Boat Memory.When they got England, Fitz-Roy took care of them. He vaccinate them not to have any disease that were terrible to the aborigines taken to Europe. Anyway, one day Boat Memory died because of smallpox in a hospital.

Later, the natives were educated by Missionary Church Society, so they were taken to Wallthamastow. They stayed there almost like a year. They learnt English, Christianism, how to use commo tools and some knowledges about farming, gardening and mechanics.

On June in 1831 Fitz-Roy had the mission to come back to America to settle some problems that were happening there. So the James could get back to his house. The ex-Fueguians had been in England one year and four months. This time they were travelling witha a naturalist, Charles Darwin. It was very difficult to Jemmy to get his language and customs back, but in the other hand, it was easier to take off from him everything that had to do with Europe. The experiment failed. 

In 1855 a group of Christian missionaries visited Wulaia Bay in Navarino Island, to find that Jemmy still had a some remains of the English accent. Later in 1859, a group of missionaries was killed at Wulaia Bay by the yaghan, supposedly led by Jemmy and his family. Then he denied  any responsibility.

Here you can watch a video, with a funny song in Spanish that explains this story briefly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMa6ftqzE6Q

I think that this story is very interesting because you can see that someone is taken to another country to become to another person. They tried to make his mind up, he was part of a Fitz-Roy's experiment. Englishman didn't care about him and neiter his customs, things that are part of their culture. However he still had his aboriginal essence, he never loose his identity. That's what he was, that's what we are. That's what you are. What do you think about this story? Let me know in the coment section below.