Rare uncontacted tribe photographed in Amazon

via BBC News, May 30, 2008:

Isolated tribe spotted in Brazil
One of South America's few remaining uncontacted indigenous tribes has been spotted and photographed on the border between Brazil and Peru.

The Brazilian government says it took the images to prove the tribe exists and help protect its land.

The pictures, taken from an aeroplane, show red-painted tribe members brandishing bows and arrows.

More than half the world's 100 uncontacted tribes live in Brazil or Peru, Survival International says.

Stephen Corry, the director of the group - which supports tribal people around the world - said such tribes would "soon be made extinct" if their land was not protected.

'Monumental crime'

Survival International says that although this particular group is increasing in number, others in the area are at risk from illegal logging.

The photos were taken during several flights over one of the most remote parts of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil's Acre region.

They show tribe members outside thatched huts, surrounded by the dense jungle, pointing bows and arrows up at the camera.

"We did the overflight to show their houses, to show they are there, to show they exist," the group quoted Jose Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Junior, an official in the Brazilian government's Indian affairs department, as saying.

"This is very important because there are some who doubt their existence."

He described the threats to such tribes and their land as "a monumental crime against the natural world" and "further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the 'civilised' ones, treat the world".

Disease is also a risk, as members of tribal groups that have been contacted in the past have died of illnesses that they have no defence against, ranging from chicken pox to the common cold.

more via Reuters, May 29, 2008:

Rare uncontacted tribe photographed in Amazon

[...] One of the pictures, which can be seen on Survival International's Web site (http://www.survival-international.org), shows two Indian men covered in bright red pigment poised to fire arrows at the aircraft while another Indian looks on.

Another photo shows about 15 Indians near thatched huts, some of them also preparing to fire arrows at the aircraft.

"The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is protected in accordance with international law. Otherwise, they will soon be made extinct," said Stephen Corry, the director of Survival International, which supports tribal people around the world.

Of more than 100 uncontacted tribes worldwide, more than half live in either Brazil or Peru, Survival International says. It says all are in grave danger of being forced off their land, killed and ravaged by new diseases.

(Reporting by Stuart Grudgings; editing by Sandra Maler)

Comments

[Dan Janes]

Seriously, are we trying to put people in a zoo. These are human beings, why are we deliberately trying to keep them from food, education, technologies, and other positive impacts within the world. It is like we are trying to treat them like animals and protect a separate species the way this is written. I wholeheartedly disagree with ostracizing them from society and believe measured engaement allowing them the benefits of who we are as a civilization across all continents would enrich life for them and posterity. To continue with a lack of engagement would relegate them to a lack of opportunity for them and their children's future to adapt to the current world with the amazing benefits we have achieved as a human race. There are drawbacks, but to say that life is better for people in huts and in a a constant state of self-preservation for individual life is to say that as a race we have regressed over the last thousands of years and what we do today is not a benefit to the race as a whole.

[alan]

I completely disagree with the first comment. Firstly because uncontacted peoples in South America do not have immunity from diseases brought from Europe. How would it benefit them to be wiped out?

According to what I've read they have put their settlements deep into the forest so obviously they are not interested in joining the outside world. Why should they be forced into our consumerist hierarchical society if they are content with their traditional life?

[Kristin]

I agree with Alan... and I stopped reading what Dan had to say after the fourth line. We get it!
This is their way of life. All that they have ever known. They don't know what they are "missing" since they've never experienced it. They're content and obviously doing well on their own since they're clearly alive and present. Let it be.