Nomenclature
According to Lucas Bridges, one of the few Europeans to speak Yaghan, the Yaghans' name for themselves was Yamana (meaning people). The name Yaghan (originally spelled Yahgan), was first used by Lucas's father Thomas Bridges as a shortened form of Yahgashagalumoala (meaning people from mountain valley channel), the name of the inhabitants of the Murray Channel (Yahgashaga), from whom Thomas Bridges first learned the language. The name Tekenika (Spanish: Tequenica), first applied to a sound in Hoste Island, simply means I do not understand, and evidently originated as the answer to a misunderstood question.
Read more about this topic: Yaghan People