New Uncontacted Group Confirmed in Brazil

• By Brandon Keim brandon@earthlab.net">

The Brazilian government has confirmed the existence of a previously unknown group of so-called uncontacted people who have remained isolated from industrial society.

In April, the Brazilian government agency charged with protecting the country's indigenous tribes took aerial photographs of the group's Amazon dwellings. The photos were released June 22 by Survival International, an advocacy group for indigenous people.

Survival International research director Fiona Watson talked to Wired.com about the photos.

House

The structure of the dwelling is very different from those seen in photographs of another uncontacted Amazon group that were released in February. Unlike those small, open dwellings, these are large and enclosed.

"Probably 20 or 30 people could fit in there," said Watson. "You can see smaller structures toward the back of the house. These could be areas for cooking, or storing things. I've been to indigenous villages where they have separate structures for keeping the large birds from which they pluck feathers to make arrows."

Image: Peetsa/Arquivo CGIIRC-Funai

New House

"These are all quite new structures," said Watson. "You can tell that because the vegetation hasn't grown back around the houses. They were constructed in the last year. You can still see the bare trunks."

Image: Peetsa/Arquivo CGIIRC-Funai

The People

The only glimpse of the people who live inside is in the upper right-center of the new house photograph, adjacent to the house. According to Watson, it's not yet known what tribe they belong to.

Image: Peetsa/Arquivo CGIIRC-Funai

There to Stay

"Another thing these photographs say to me is that the structures are not temporary," said Watson. "They are quite substantial. They would have taken a lot of time and effort to build. It looks to me like they're semi-nomadic. They would be hunters, certainly. They're not nomadic."

Watson said the Brazilian government has spotted the group's gardens, which contain corn and peanuts, as well as the banana trees visible in this photo.

Image: Peetsa/Arquivo CGIIRC-Funai

The Javari Valley

Note: Above is video from a contact made in 1996 with members of a tribe who live in the same region as the newly-identified group.

The newly-identified group lives in the Javari valley, a South Carolina-sized region set aside by the Brazilian government for indigenous people. About 2,000 uncontacted people are believed to live there, making it the last great stronghold of groups who've utterly eschewed industrial civilization.

"There are about seven groups who have been contacted, and what the Brazilian government says is that they've found references to about 14 uncontacted indigenous groups," said Watson. "Some of those groups may be the same people. It's hard to say exactly how many there are."

The most recent contact was made in 1996 with a group of Korubo tribespeople. (Above is videotape from that encounter.) Though government policy is to avoid contact altogether, they were moving toward an area occupied by loggers, making it necessary to warn them away.

Video: Funai/Survival International

Threats

Though the Javari valley's uncontacted people want to avoid the industrial world, the industrial world doesn't always want to avoid them.

"There's more and more pressure from people illegally hunting game, from missionary groups who want to bring them the Word, and from narco-traffickers," said Watson.

"The big question is, how are authorities going to ensure this area's protection in the long term? Both in Brazil and Peru, governments want to exploit the natural resources of the Amazon for their nation's benefit. There's more and more pressure from gas and mining countries. One thing we're watching is a bill making its way through Brazil's Congress that would open up large-scale mining in indigenous territories."

Image: Peetsa/Arquivo CGIIRC-Funai

Lessons

"I'm really fascinated by these tribes, particularly the uncontacted people, who live so very differently than us," said Watson. "These people use their environment so intelligently and well. I don't mean that in a romanticized way. You see this partly in the photographs we released earlier this year. I was amazed at how healthy they look.

But it's not amazing. When people's rights are respected and they can live on their land as they choose, they live very well. These people don't need food packages from us. I'm not saying it's better or worse than our way of life, but it's very successful at leaving a minimum footprint."

Image: Peetsa/Arquivo CGIIRC-Funai

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