![]() Often believing that the tribes are ‘primitive’ and living pitiful lives ‘in the dark’, the missionaries’ ultimate aim is to convert them to Christianity – at whatever cost to the tribal peoples’ own health and wishes. Half of my people died.’ MissionariesĬhristian missionaries, who have been making first contact with tribes for five hundred years, are still trying to do so today. One of the Murunahua survivors, Jorge, who lost an eye during first contact, told a Survival researcher, ‘The disease came when the loggers made contact with us, although we didn’t know what a cold was then. In Peru, more than 50% of the previously-uncontacted Nahua tribe were wiped out following oil exploration on their land in the early 1980s, and the same tragedy engulfed the Murunahua in the mid-1990s after being forcibly contacted by illegal mahogany loggers. Introduced diseases are the biggest killer of isolated tribal people, who have not developed immunity to viruses such as influenza, measles and chicken pox that most other societies have been in contact with for hundreds of years. He and his small band of survivors now live alone in a fragment of forest – all that remains of their land, and their people. One of the men, Pupak, has lead shot still buried in his back, and mimes the gunmen who pursued him on horseback. They are the last known survivors of their people and live in Rondônia state, western Brazil. © Fiona Watson/Survival The Akuntsu are a tiny Amazonian tribe of just five individuals. But when agents of Brazil’s Indian affairs department FUNAI contacted them in 1995, they found that the cattle ranchers who had taken over the Indians’ land had massacred almost all the tribe, and bulldozed their houses to try to cover up the massacre. No-one speaks their language, so the precise details of what happened to them may never be known. Their fate is all the more tragic for being so recent. ![]() Of all the tribal peoples wiped out for standing in the way of ‘progress’, few are as poignant as the Akuntsu. Cattle ranchersĬattle ranching has destroyed nearly all the Akuntsu’s land. ![]() A vast array of powerful forces are ranged against them. Uncontacted tribes are the most vulnerable peoples on earth. It does not store any personal data.Uncontacted tribes: the threats Awá men travel down a road cut by loggers, Brazil. © Uirá Garcia/Survival The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly.
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