Dawson Island
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Dawson Island (Lat: 53.97º S Long: 70.58º W)[1] is an island in the Strait of Magellan that forms part of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, 100 km south of the city of Punta Arenas in Chile. It is an approximately 1290 km² tract of land that is often lashed with harsh Antarctic weather.
[edit] History
Dawson Island was used as a concentration camp for the Selknam and other native people in the late 1800s. In 1890, the Chilean government granted Salesian missionaries from Italy a 20-year concession to Dawson Island to educate, care for, and adapt indigenous people.
In more recent history, after the 1973 military coup, the island was used as a place to house political prisoners. According to an International Red Cross report in 1974, it was home to some 99 political detainees who were sentenced to forced labor and lived in squalor. The prison was shut down less than a year later and its prisoners transferred elsewhere.
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