Falkland Islanders

Falkland Islanders, also called Falklanders, are the people of the Falkland Islands, a British Overseas Territory in South America. While it was long believed that the Falkland Islands were never discovered or inhabited by Indigenous peoples prior to European arrival, recent scientific evidence suggests otherwise. Archaeological and paleoecological data indicate prehistoric human activity on the islands centuries before European exploration. This evidence, which includes traces of abrupt fire activity, deposits of mixed marine vertebrates, and a locally sourced stone projectile point, suggests that capable seafaring peoples from Tierra del Fuego, such as the Yaghan (Yámana), may have reached the islands during the Holocene. The modern Falkland Islander population derives from various origins since the 19th century. Earliest among these are the numerically small but internationally diverse early 19th century inhabitants of the Islands, comprising and descended in part from settlers brought by Luis Vernet, and English and American sealers; South American gauchos who settled in the 1840s and 1850s; and since the late 1830s, settlers largely from Britain (especially Scotland and Wales) with a minority from other European countries. More recently, there have been significant levels of immigration from Saint Helena, Chile, the Philippines, and Zimbabwe.