ALACALUF, an Indian tribe, almost extinct, living in the west Patagonian channels, chiefly in the vicinity of Racion sound. Formerly they were much more numerous, and their canoes might be seen southward from the Gulf of Penas to Brecknock peninsula in Tierra del Fuego, including the Straits of Magellan. Their culture in general closely resembles that of the other canoe-using tribe of Tierra del Fuego, the Yahgan (q.v.). The use of planked canoes by the Alacaluf has suggested the pos sibility of culture transference from Polynesia, but the Alacaluf planked canoe is demonstrably a local development.
See J. M. Cooper, "Analytical and Critical Bibliography ... of Tierra del Fuego," in Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 63 (1917). (S. K. L.)