Brazilian officials make contact with an isolated indigenous tribe in a rare expedition to reunite members with some of their relatives and ease tensions with a rival group
- High-risk expedition reunited relatives with 34 members of the Korubo tribe in Brazilian state of Amazonas
- Brazil’s agency for indigenous people, FUNAI, said team of two dozen reached the Korubos
- Matis tribe requested FUNAI’s intervention because they thought Korubos wanted revenge, believing their relatives had been killed by the Matis
- FUNAI’s feared group would not believe that the Korubos in the expedition were in fact their relatives
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A high-risk expedition in the Amazon has reunited an isolated group with relatives and eased tensions with a rival tribe near the border with Peru, Brazil’s agency for indigenous peoples said on Friday.
The FUNAI agency said a team of nearly two dozen reached 34 members of the Korubo tribe in the Brazilian state of Amazonas.
The expedition included relatives of the Korubos and also aimed to avoid a possible conflict with the Matis tribe living about 12 miles away.
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A high-risk expedition in the Amazon has reunited members of the isolated Korubo tribe with relatives and eased tensions with a rival tribe near the border with Peru, Brazil’s agency for indigenous peoples, FUNAI, said on Friday. Above: A FUNAI member checks the heart rate of one smiling tribe member
FUNAI said a team of nearly two dozen reached 34 members of the Korubo tribe in the Brazilian state of Amazonas
The Matis tribe repeatedly requested FUNAI’s intervention in the case because they believed the isolated Korubos wanted revenge, mistakenly believing their relatives had been killed by the Matis.
The main concern of FUNAI analysts was that the isolated group would not believe that the Korubos in the expedition were in fact their relatives, which made them call the mission ‘high risk’.
‘It was actually quite moving. We soon found one of the two Korubos we saw first was a brother of one of the members of the expedition,’ said FUNAI co-ordinator Bruno Pereira.
The expedition included relatives of the Korubos and also aimed to avoid a possible conflict with the Matis tribe living about 12 miles away. Above: Members of the Korubo tribe, who live in the Valley of Javari in Brazil
The Matis tribe repeatedly requested FUNAI’s intervention in the case because they believed the isolated Korubos wanted revenge, mistakenly believing their relatives had been killed by the Matis. (Above: A FUNAI offical vaccinating a member of the tribe during the recent expedition)
‘There was a lot of emotion and tears.’
The trip lasted 32 days in the Javari Valley, an area of about 31,000 square miles.
Brazilian law says that contact with isolated tribes can be used only as a last resort to preserve the lives of indigenous peoples, and the expedition was FUNAI’s biggest since 1996.
The main concern of FUNAI analysts was that the isolated group (pictured in 2014) would not believe that the Korubos in the expedition were in fact their relatives, which made them call the mission ‘high risk’
The trip lasted 32 days in the Javari Valley, an area of about 31,000 square miles. Above: Korubo tribe members in 2014
It is also the agency’s first major operation during the administration of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.
Brazil’s new leader has often criticised bodies that handle indigenous issues.
He has also promised to stop demarcation of indigenous lands and allow miners and farmers to operate in their lands.
The uncontacted indigenous tribes of Brazil’s Amazon
Native Brazilian group playing wooden flute at an indigenous tribe in the Amazon in Brazil
Brazil’s Amazon is home to more uncontacted tribes than anywhere in the world. There are thought to be at least 100 isolated groups in this rainforest, according to the government’s Indian affairs department FUNAI.
Their decision not to maintain contact with other tribes and outsiders is almost certainly a result of previous disastrous encounters and the ongoing invasion and destruction of their forest home.
Very little is known about these peoples. What is known is that they wish to remain uncontacted: they have shot arrows at outsiders and airplanes, or they simply avoid contact by hiding deep in the forest.
In Acre there could be as many as 600 indigenous individuals belonging to four different groups. Here they live in relative tranquility in several demarcated territories which are largely untouched.
It is possible that up to 300 uncontacted people live in the Massacó territory in Rondônia.
They use enormous bows and arrows – one bow was found measuring over four metres – very similar in size and design to the Sirionó tribe live in neighbouring Bolivia.
They clearly like to eat tortoises as mounds of shells have been found in abandoned camps.
However, other uncontacted groups are teetering on the edge of extinction with no more than a handful of individuals left.
A recent report says that some of them are abandoning their land due to the noise and pollution from the construction sites.
All are extremely vulnerable to diseases like flu or the common cold transmitted by outsiders and to which they have no resistance: good reasons to avoid contact.
Source: Survival International