One of the world's last uncontacted tribes...

[DirtyD]

Brazil says uncontacted Amazon tribe threatened

By MICHAEL ASTOR – 20 hours ago

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) — Brazil's government agreed to release stunning photos of Amazon Indians firing arrows at an airplane so that the world can better understand the threats facing one of the few tribes still living in near-total isolation from civilization, officials said Friday.

Anthropologists have known about the group for some 20 years but released the images now to call attention to fast-encroaching development near the Indians' home in the dense jungles near Peru.

"We put the photos out because if things continue the way they are going, these people are going to disappear," said Jose Carlos Meirelles, who coordinates government efforts to protect four "uncontacted" tribes for Brazil's National Indian Foundation.

Shot in late April and early May, the foundation's photos show about a dozen Indians, mostly naked and painted red, wielding bows and arrows outside six grass-thatched huts.

Meirelles told The Associated Press in a phone interview that anthropologists know next to nothing about the group, but suspect it is related to the Tano and Aruak tribes.

Brazil's National Indian Foundation believes there may be as many as 68 "uncontacted" groups around Brazil, although only 24 have been officially confirmed.

Anthropologists say almost all of these tribes know about western civilization and have sporadic contact with prospectors, rubber tappers and loggers, but choose to turn their backs on civilization, usually because they have been attacked.

"It's a choice they made to remain isolated or maintain only occasional contacts, but these tribes usually obtain some modern goods through trading with other Indians," said Bernardo Beronde, an anthropologist who works in the region.

Brazilian officials once tried to contact such groups. Now they try to protectively isolate them.

The four tribes monitored by Meirelles include perhaps 500 people who roam over an area of about 1.6 million acres (630,000 hectares).

He said that over the 20 years he has been working in the area, the number of "malocas," or grass-roofed huts, has doubled, suggesting that the policy of isolation is working and that populations are growing.

Remaining isolated, however, gets more complicated by the day.

Loggers are closing in on the Indians' homeland — Brazil's environmental protection agency said Friday it had shut down 28 illegal sawmills in Acre state, where these tribes are located. And logging on the Peruvian border has sent many Indians fleeing into Brazil, Meirelles said.

"On the Brazilian side we don't have logging yet, but I'd like to emphasize the 'yet,'" he said.

A new road being paved from Peru into Acre will likely bring in hordes of poor settlers. Other Amazon roads have led to 30 miles (50 kilometers) of rain forest being cut down on each side, scientists say.

While "uncontacted" Indians often respond violently to contact — Meirelles caught an arrow in the face from some of the same Indians in 2004 — the greater threat is to the Indians.

"First contact is often completely catastrophic for "uncontacted" tribes. It's not unusual for 50 percent of the tribe to die in months after first contact," said Miriam Ross, a campaigner with the Indian rights group Survival International. "They don't generally have immunity to diseases common to outside society. Colds and flu that aren't usually fatal to us can completely wipe them out."

Survival International estimates about 100 tribes worldwide have chosen to avoid contact, but said the only truly uncontacted tribe is the Sentinelese, who live on North Sentinel island off the coast of India and shoot arrows at anyone who comes near.

Last year, the Metyktire tribe, with about 87 members, was discovered in a densely jungled portion of the 12.1-million-acre (4.9-million-hectare) Menkregnoti Indian reservation in the Brazilian Amazon, when two of its members showed up at another tribe's village.

 

[253eg]

just read this.
shits crazy.

 

[Genuine Rolla]

sooo interesting...i find stuff like this really neat.

 

[Astheros]

thats cool...it sucks they cant be in peace. but it is neat to see how people live like this.

 

[Wolfy]

Leave those folks alone. As long as they're not trying to attack people outside their territories, leave them be.

 

[toneekay]

this reminds me of that movie, apocolypto

 

[Jeegz]

Always cool to see people like this. Knowing how big the world is.

 

[RedLine42]

there orange

 

[Milano01]

its always interesting learning about how other people live. sucks that there areas and homeland are being taken over by illegal loggers and companys.

 

[Suanico]

if they had shot arrows at the plane and the plane for some reason crashed (just saying, dont bash) and they killed the people in the plane.... How would they be punished? they arent documented people, no names, dont speak the native language im sure, undocumented age....would the normal laws apply to them?

 

[CajunRicer]

so thats where the oompa-loompas come from.

 

[roaddogg3034]

if they had shot arrows at the plane and the plane for some reason crashed (just saying, dont bash) and they killed the people in the plane.... How would they be punished? they arent documented people, no names, dont speak the native language im sure, undocumented age....would the normal laws apply to them?

an unofficial person, would require an unofficial punishment.

 

[DirtyD]

an unofficial person, would require an unofficial punishment.

huh?

 

[oc_civic]

not to be the only person being an a*****e.. but arent these people kind of useless.... like they sit in the woods.. have no technology.. and offer very little ot the modern world.... like i get that its kind of neat that they just live off of the land like that.. but there are people in back woods america living off the land..

 

[Hecz]

if they had shot arrows at the plane and the plane for some reason crashed (just saying, dont bash) and they killed the people in the plane.... How would they be punished? they arent documented people, no names, dont speak the native language im sure, undocumented age....would the normal laws apply to them?

damn, i wished that would of happened.

 

[Astheros]

not to be the only person being an a*****e.. but arent these people kind of useless.... like they sit in the woods.. have no technology.. and offer very little ot the modern world.... like i get that its kind of neat that they just live off of the land like that.. but there are people in back woods america living off the land..

this has nothing to do w. america so lets not make it a competition here. (and this is more some covington woods type of s**t)

also...if u define useless by what they contribute to modern society...well then children are useless for their first 18 yrs of life...what do we do with them? they are useful to themselves and thats all they need to be cause theyre are neither taking nor giving.

also...then cavemen were useless....and without them u wouldnt be here w. ure little civic.

 

[DirtyD]

Yeah, they're useless to us but they don't exactly need to be useful. It's not like they're collecting welfare checks I'm sure each one are useful to their own society.

the thing I find interesting is that if they came to live in a city they'd end up dying prematurely since their bodies haven't built immunity to viruses.

 

[oc_civic]

Yeah, they're useless to us but they don't exactly need to be useful. It's not like they're collecting welfare checks

valid point.. but if we adopted the stand of "they are natives to that area leave them be" america would not exist...

 

[DirtyD]

valid point.. but if we adopted the stand of "they are natives to that area leave them be" america would not exist...

True, this is a different case though. The locales that these people live in are in the middle of thick jungle and thousands of kilometers from river transport, basically useless for any type of gain.


... and we all know how much the world needs another America jk

 

[06_Spaceship]

valid point.. but if we adopted the stand of "they are natives to that area leave them be" america would not exist...