Peace Corps Volunteer Gage Skinner in traditional dress sitting with Mapuche peoples, Chile
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Peace Corps Volunteer Gage Skinner served in Chile between 1964-1966 under the supervision of the Dirección de Asuntos Indígenas (DAI). Skinner helped start the successful Mapuche beekeeping venture and proposed marketing the sticks and balls from the traditional Mapuche game of chueca, which sold out in Temuco. Next came drums, flutes, wooden masks, and cradle boards. Profits from the sales went one-quarter to the crafts person and the rest to the Reducción Quetrahue's women's organization for the purchase of wool and dye for weaving projects. After the Peace Corps, Skinner became a cultural anthropologist, with a specialty in Native American studies. Skinner eventually donated his extensive collection of Mapuche arts and crafts to San Diego's Museum of Man.
