When she died last week at the age of 93, Chilean ethnographer Cristina Calderón took with her the Yahgan language. She was, alongside her sister Úrsula — who died in 2005 at 84 — the last full-blooded member of the Yahgan people, an indigenous ethnic group of nomads whose traditional territory includes Chile’s southernmost islands.
Ms. Calderón had been declared a Living Human Treasure by the Chilean government and UNESCO, and her death was mourned by President-elect Gabriel Boric, who takes office on March 11. “When my sister Úrsula passed away I was left alone, with no one to...
