First contact … lost tribe spotted in Peru
By Countervalue • May 5th, 2008 • Category: Survival 
From: Survival International
Twenty-one uncontacted Indians have been spotted from the air during a flight over one of the most remote parts of the Peruvian rainforest. Their territory is currently being targeted by illegal loggers.
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The Indians were spotted on the shores of the Las Piedras river in Peru’s south-eastern Amazon. They left their shelters on the beach to watch the plane, chartered by Peru’s Environment Agency, fly overhead. During the plane’s second pass, one of the Indian women, carrying arrows and accompanied by a small boy, gestured aggressively, whilst the rest of the group sought refuge in the undergrowth
‘This is the most recent recorded sighting of them,’ stated Peru’s national Indian organisation, AIDESEP. ‘The uncontacted tribes exist. If we don’t act now, tomorrow could be too late.’
In total, there are an estimated 15 uncontacted tribes in Peru and all of them are under severe threat, mainly from logging and oil exploration. Because of their isolation, they do not have immunity to outsiders’ diseases and any form of contact can be fatal for them.
The sighting comes after the chairman of Perupetro, Peru’s state oil company, stated that it was ‘absurd to say there are uncontacted peoples when no one has seen them’, while another Perupetro spokesperson compared the tribes to the Loch Ness monster.
Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘What further proof is needed of the uncontacted tribes’ existence? There they are for all the world to see - Peru’s most vulnerable citizens whose government now needs to do its duty by them. It is time for their rights to their land to be recognised and respected, for oil and gas exploration to be banned from their territories, and for all loggers and other outsiders to be removed.’
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LEAVE THEM ALONE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Leave them alone? Bring them into the 21st century.
leave them the FUCK alone
I second the writer styxxman above.
There is absolutely nothing more to it.
Leave them alone!
Keep the oil & logging companies out of there! It’s not their resources to sell. These resources belong to all of us, since they were not made by us, but mostly they belong to the natives who live there… and they feel these resources don’t belong to anyone.
Stay out! Leave them alone. Nuff said.
Launch “Operation Enduring Interference” I say!
Yes! Damn straight they better respect their rights! The rainforest is their home! Get out of their land and stay out!
It would be horrifying if they died off because of the ‘civilized’ man’s disgusting greed.
Thomas, you would risk their lives through infection by trying to bring them into the 21th century? Life for those forcibly modernized primitive* peoples is not easy. Best to leave well enough alone. They no doubt are aware of outside civilization, (whatever they may think about it), the plane for example, and certainly those loggers I doubt avoided their observation, even if the loggers claim to have never seen them. If they wanted to join it [civilization] nothing is stopping them from walking out of their jungle. Except fear, and they are right to fear.
*Primitive, that is people of the first (prime) social organization (tribalism).
Hey. sorry but it is a sad fact: if you do not adapt, you do not survive. The ways that these people hope to hold onto simply do not work anymore. Sure, they work if they just live in the forest and no one bothers them, but what if I just decided to go live in the woods? Well, the social construct — “ownership” — would very likely conflict with my desire to live with nature and the person who owned the land would probably have me arrested, or would kill me, regardless of my “right” to all of our land. The same thing is happening here: sure its nice for hippies to say things like, “mother earth is all of ours and we have to learn to share her,” but if it comes down to it, resources are scarce and societys demand for those resources is more compelling than the desires of a few hundred people in loincloths. Simple economics; and plus, the powerful will always decide what is justice, and who will be the beneficiary.
I don’t think they want anything from us. So we can stay out of their land..
Those resources are mine, mine I say! I saw them first! I am the Big Oil Company!!!
Nice that some people live actually _free_, LEAVE THEM ALOOONE!
I agree with all the leave them alone comments, but anyone with a brain knows that ,sadly they are doomed!
Leave them alone, why are they in danger?????
If the Society of the time had left Africans alone they would be in a lot less danger. Get real it’s all about profit and these happy chappies might be hiding from The “help” the civilised world offers.
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never leave them alone!
“sorry but it is a sad fact: if you do not adapt, you do not survive.”
“C Dogg”, that’s what we call Social Darwinism. It’s a morally and intellectually bankrupt concept. How exactly do you propose these people “adapt”? It isn’t like their brains are fundamentally different from ours. They just live differently, and there is no reason they couldn’t continue to live that way and be perfectly fine.
Other than that, the idea that there are “uncontacted” tribes is actually kind of wrong. No group of people exist in a vacuum. They trade with, intermarry, and war with other neighboring tribes.
leave them alone!
its a nice statement and by writting it you must think you care or something. you just wait until your lifestyle demands the destruction of their home. when you cant get in your car to drive to the store will you be deffending them so readily then?
Look:
We can leave them alone, and leave them confused and scared every time they see an airplane or logging machine, or we can at least introduce ourselves and offer an explanation or two and try our best to help them with their situation.
The discussion boards thus far have been rather polarized, with one side saying “incorporate them!” and the other one saying “leave them alone!”, but few seem to realize that there does, in fact, exist a middle ground between these two.
We can (probably very cautiously) go and try to make contact, but not bring, say, nuclear technology and MTV with us. A friendly hello and (possibly) an attempt on our part to explain the situation they’re in should suffice. If they want to know more, then we tell them more. If not, we leave them be.
The majority of you seem to be missing the most important part of the article:
“Because of their isolation, they do not have immunity to outsiders’ diseases and any form of contact can be fatal for them.”
If we tried to make contact, odds are good that most, if not all of them would just fucking die. All of us are carriers of all sorts of diseases, some of which we’ve never even had the displeasure of feeling the symptoms of, as our forebears dealt with them instead (dying in droves) as our immune systems adapted.
Past evidence: any eurpoean colonization of far away places in the last 700 years (Die more please.), anyone trying to go to africa now who isn’t a resident (better get your six dozen vaccines… and stay out of the jungle!).
Contacting these people is a death sentence, leaving them alone isn’t just an option, its the ONLY option.
Leave them alone? Yes, and perhaps no.
It’s true that it’s very important to let these tribe thrive in their own culture. After all, they were here way before you or I were typing our opinions on computer keyboards. By all means, help them preserve their culture, their environment. That’s where cultural diversity comes from.
The next question, perhaps, is would it be wise to educate — no, a better word would be to exchange education and learnings with them as a way of bridging the gap? Woe betide the one who thinks this can be an underhanded means of weaseling into their resources. If we do this, the act ought to be a sincere step into understanding each other.
@ Liam: on the disease POV, so true. The western world actually brought small pox to islanders, not the other way around, and thus pretty much wiped out certain ethnicities that could have shared life-saving knowledge with us… if only “Modern Man” hadn’t been so careless.
The next question is… now that we know better, and have the medical technology, would medical missions and free immunizations/inoculations help, or hinder? Would a synthesis of their medical knowledge (as the Amazon shelters over a million or so plants that contribute to pharmaceutical breakthroughs) be beneficial to both parties?
How about thinking about the people in need there: 1. indians need vaccine. yesterday. 2. your fat asses don’t need the resources from Peru, but maybe the poor peruans do.. as it may be their only trade and chance for survival. So the question can only be: who benefits from perupetro? Is it villagers? If so, stop complaining about logging unless you are prepared to feed, clothe, and otherwise help the villagers yourself.
God will judge if they live or die.
Period.
LEAVE THEM ALONE!
agabuga…….have you never read a history book or a speller for that matter. Anyone with the slightest amount of common sense has to realize we civilized folk will rape them of anything we can sell for a profit, infect them with our western diseases and then try to convert them to any one of our established religions. They have survived for hundreds of years. At least leave this very small segment of humanity alone as we have screwed up everything else we have touched in the name of religion or progress. If you do nothing else in your life, before making statements, at least read a book.
“Leave them alone? Bring them into the 21st century.”
They evidently exist in the 21st century.
This is a sad report. As it’s said that the area is being targeted by illegal loggers makes me think there’s little that can be done, unless contact is made with these people and they can be persuaded to move. I can’t even see how this would be carried out. Whatever happens, they will meet the external world one day, and be disgusted.
ok, ok…. i know we probably shouldnt go contact them cause they will get old world diseases… but you know in cartoons and tv when people go back in time with time machines and bring ancient people back and go “LOOK AT THIS TV MAN! THERES PEOPLE IN A BOX!” i think this may be our only hope to recreate that in real life.
Take their land, expolit it, give it back and pay billions in reparation….then they can buy blackmarket arms, wage war on intuders and declare freedom from oppresive imperialism
but they need Christ or the will go to hell.
Yes Leave’em alone! It’s a stupid belief to say that our civilization is the best.
“one of the most remote parts of the Peruvian rainforest”
I don’t see how invading and destroying one of the last tiny vestiges of uncharted forestry in the world is going to clothe or feed anybody. The only benefactor here are those who profit.
We are not talking about a species of bird or a snail. These people probably go back hundreds or thousands of years. We have no right to kill them off. It’s unadulterated greed to even consider going in there.
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yaaaaaa…. This tribe has the right idea!
Small villages, all your needs available within walking distance, if you die off from disease or whatever… so be it… natural selection right??? haha… either way people have their needs met, no overpopulation, and no FRIGGIN OIL COMPANIES who are controlling and ruining everyones lives….
P.S. I’m not a hippy… but maybe i should be
Yeah. They’re Native Americans. Indians come from India. The 80’s called, they want their offensive racial moniker back.
I agree. Why introduce them to this man-eating, soulless culture. Let them live their story.
our society’s “need” for resources will eventually suck this earth dry, once that happens the earth is doomed and everyone on it….so i predict they wont be left alone and the resources taken.
Bring them into the 21st century!!! You’ve got to be kidding!
So they can be…what? in this world. I doubt that would be beneficial to them. Gee. they could then be discriminated against by the powers that be…they could lose what homeland they have left.
But wait, we could sell them something like Nikes, or MacDonalds, or you name it. But then again, they would have to work for the powers that be as slave (minority) labor to get the money to our our f**k of a world.
Yes, get away, keep everyone else away, and let them live!
Leave em be.
Whether or not it will be possible to save these people from the rest of us, I think the majority of us clearly recognize that it is our moral duty to do everything in our power to safeguard and protect them.
We need more timber and oil, so I say reholm them to a nice new house in a city and they can contribute to the states wealth with taxes. 15 or so tribes wold be about 200 people, thats a lot of usable forest that they live on, to much for them, thats just greed, think of all the jobs they are effecting. Get them out and the logger/ oil companies in.
I’m happy to have stumbled upon these photos again: I saw them quite a few months ago and the high quality versions are just amazing in that “I wish these were never taken” way. As someone who works in rural South America, to place those on top of my image of “Peru” was both difficult and an interesting. It is something I worked through for quite some time…thinking about the rocky pre and post conquest history of the region that just didn’t affect these people in any way. I remember when I was living in the Guatemalan jungle in 2003…the world could have ended and I would have never known from where I was.
Anyhow, it is quite disparaging to see some of these comments. I would hope that when faced with such compelling visuals, anyone would at least try to engage on a basic level with the issues surrounding this. Beyond any argument for or against cultural survival and the rights of indigenous peoples, the reality of disease is monumental. If they are “contacted” in any way, most or all of them will get sick and die from things as simple as the common cold. There can be no cultural exchange, as someone above suggested, because there is no way to make anyone from the outside completely germ free. A recent of many examples was the first contact of the Nukaak in Colombia in 1988…65% of their population was lost to disease and their leader committed suicide by drinking poison in 2006.
If you think that poor indigenous Peruvians are seeing any money from the oil companies, well, you live in an interesting world within your own mind. If you think Jesus, God, or any deity wants us to cause the immediate death of innocents, perhaps you need to re-evaluate your faith. If images like this one do not shake the foundations of your world just a little, I feel sorry for you.
Most definitely - Leave Them Alone!
Why must we destroy everything and everone out of selfisness?
I heard they have evil leader and oil. Lets help them and spread democracy with some shocking awe.
These people are under threat there’s no doubt about it- but is their greatest danger loggers or bloggers?
Hi,
I totally agree with the writer. Leave them alone.
They are however not the only tribes left in the world. The real and only tribes still uncontacted are the Sentinals that sty in North Sentinal Island - Andaman Islands. Do a search and you will be amazed. They cant swim and hence have never been able to leave the island and because they have shallow reefs, people cant come out. You can check them out on andaman.org (amazing and rare footage) or thefarawaytree.in.
Lifes too short …let us do good. Leave them alone. Why do we have to ruin everything we touch. It is sad…also for all those who are atheist like me but are spiritual, check out vrrpspirituallearning.com.
Have a happy life