Posted on 06/21/2008 1:17:49 PM PDT by blam
Uncontacted" Amazon Tribe Actually Known for Decades
Kelly Hearn for National Geographic News
June 19, 2008
Recent photos of an uncontacted tribe firing arrows at a plane briefly made these Amazon Indians the world's least understood media darlings.
Contrary to many news stories, the isolated group has actually been monitored from a distance for decades, past and current Brazilian government officials say.
No one, however, is known to have had a face-to-face meeting with the nomadic tribe, which lives along the Peru-Brazil border. And no one knows how much, if anything, these rain forest people know about the outside world.
The tribe—whose name remains unknown—was first discovered by outsiders around 1910, according to José Carlos Meirelles, an official with Brazil's Indian-protection agency (FUNAI).
It was Meirelles who released the photos on May 29 through the indigenous-rights advocacy group Survival International.
Meirelles said he made the photos public to prove the group exists. Activist and former FUNAI president Sydney Possuelo agreed that—amid development and doubt over the existence of such tribes—it was necessary to publish them.
Taken in May, the photos became a sensation and spurred debate over how best to protect isolated tribes. Many indigenous-rights advocates see such groups as under threat from oil, gas, and logging interests that covet in the Indians' resource-rich homelands.
Despite such apparent threats, the recently photographed group's population has nearly doubled in the last twenty years, Meirelles added.
How They Live
A few things are known about the enigmatic people, Meirelles said.
They have shaved foreheads but long hair. They plant cotton—or perhaps find it growing in the jungle—and spin it into cloth for skirts. For the men, the women make cotton belts and headbands. They also make hammocks that are strung below huts covered by thick, thatched-palm roofs.
"They are agriculturalists," Meirelles said. "They have big fields, and they grow cassava, maize, almonds, pumpkin, and various types of potato, papaw, yams, and banana."
Possuelo, the former FUNAI president, said the tribe probably fishes and hunts large piglike animals called tapir (see photo).
But both Possuelo and Meirelles said the tribe could have taboos against certain foods, making it impossible to describe their diet with exactitude.
Hard to Photograph
Along with the nomadic tribe, there are three sedentary groups living in the same vast region, Meirelles said. Each group lives at least 150 kilometers (93 miles) from its nearest neighbors.
The nomadic tribe was especially hard to photograph, Meirelles said.
"When they hear the noise of the plane, they hide in the forest, leaving their communities empty," Meirelles said.
"It seems that something very bad, related to an airplane, happened to them. … I think maybe bombs were thrown at them, or they were shot at," he said.
Keeping a Distant Watch
In 1988 FUNAI surveyed the tribe's region from the air, and Brazilian government scouts have carried out ground expeditions near the edges of the group's territory to demarcate their lands.
Since 1989 Brazil has operated "protection post" on the region's Envira River. There, six state officials keep a careful, protective, and appropriately distant watch, patrolling daily to keep developers from encroaching on the land, Meirelles said.
"To protect these people—after years of doing expeditions on the ground—we managed to determine the territory of these Indians and to demarcate two indigenous territories. And a third is due to be demarcated this year," he said in an email.
The two existing territories—the Alto Tarauacá Indigenous Territory and the Riozinho do Alto Envira Indigenous Territory—together cover about 2,400 square miles (6,250 square kilometers).
Um, they look like Ooompah-Loompas.
Being the skeptic that I am, I’m still not buying this. I think they flew over the set to some Hollyweird movie. The red and black paint jobs on the actors just don’t pass the smell test with me. Just my opinion.
After all, NG has made a mint over the years showing pictures of naked natives, and I'd be willing to bet they've paid not a penny in royalties.
Somebody tell Obama. These people have a right to health care. /s
All done on computers.
What NG didn’t release with the photo is the soundtrack that went with it... the orange guy firing the arrow was supposedly yelling ‘SHOW ME THE MONEY’
It's his failed Policies in the senate that caused this suffering.
If the environuts had they’re way, we’d all be living like them!
. We haven't even met them and we are at war already.
Better send Obama in to talk them down.
Why is one really black and the other two almost red?
“”To protect these people—after years of doing expeditions on the ground—we managed to determine the territory of these Indians and to demarcate two indigenous territories.”
We call them Reservations here.
It also seems that the speculation paraded as fact never ends, be it "uncontacted" tribes, oil drilling, or the chances of Obama getting elected.
What an idiot.
“Why is one really black and the other two almost red?”
They’ve never read the memo about “red man” being a slur.
National Geographic does use computer manipulation on what are supposed to be NATURAL photographs. They will move a pyramid, duplicate animals to make a herd appear larger, and do other things without informing the reader of the manipulations.
The gods threw them down a coca-cola bottle one time and it caused havoc in their community.
I’m skeptical also. Until there’s more proof, the Sentinelese are the world’s most remote, indigenous tribe.
One is actually a ninja practicing the art of not being seen.
I agree with you...The black one with the white belt or whatever looks particular costumee.
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