Although the Aonikenk were not exterminated like their neighbors, the Selk´nam people, they suffered a process of acculturation and the loss of their original culture.
As time passed, their spiritual world and aspects of daily life fused with the catholic religion and the culture of the colonizers. alcohol and contagious sickness, such as small pox, chicken pox and syphilis, became their most deadly enemies.
Chroniclers described a nation whose members were:
« Of good physical semblance, robust complexion, tall, healthy, and even agreeable... They wear animal skins, with the fur turned inwards... They adorn themselves and their horses... they are not ferocious and they may even be friendly.»