"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.
This doesn't really surprise me- i was a bit suspicious when a supposedly completely unknown tribe came to light. However i can understand the tribes
protectors not wanting to contact them- afterall, as long as they're protected, there's little need to contact them (and they're probably better
off that way).
This is quite suspicious though;
"
"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."
I wonder if the logging companies tried to eradicate the tribes or some such similar thing?
[edit on 20-6-2008 by Tokis Phoenix]
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[edit on 23-6-2008 by Jbird]
