Kin within the Jungle: This Fight to Protect an Secluded Amazon Tribe

Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a tiny clearing deep in the Peruvian rainforest when he noticed footsteps drawing near through the lush forest.

He realized that he had been encircled, and froze.

“A single individual stood, aiming with an arrow,” he recalls. “Somehow he noticed of my presence and I started to flee.”

He found himself face to face the Mashco Piro tribe. For decades, Tomas—who lives in the small community of Nueva Oceania—served as practically a local to these itinerant people, who avoid engagement with foreigners.

A recent document from a rights organisation states there are a minimum of 196 described as “isolated tribes” remaining worldwide. This tribe is considered to be the most numerous. It states half of these groups might be eliminated in the next decade unless authorities don't do additional actions to defend them.

It argues the biggest threats stem from timber harvesting, extraction or exploration for crude. Remote communities are exceptionally at risk to common illness—as such, the study states a risk is presented by interaction with proselytizers and social media influencers seeking clicks.

Lately, the Mashco Piro have been venturing to Nueva Oceania more and more, based on accounts from locals.

The village is a fishermen's hamlet of seven or eight clans, located atop on the shores of the Tauhamanu River in the heart of the Peruvian rainforest, half a day from the closest settlement by canoe.

The territory is not recognised as a protected area for remote communities, and timber firms work here.

According to Tomas that, sometimes, the racket of heavy equipment can be detected continuously, and the Mashco Piro people are observing their forest disrupted and devastated.

Among the locals, residents say they are torn. They are afraid of the tribal weapons but they also have deep respect for their “kin” residing in the woodland and want to safeguard them.

“Allow them to live in their own way, we can't alter their way of life. That's why we maintain our distance,” explains Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the harm to the tribe's survival, the danger of aggression and the likelihood that timber workers might expose the community to illnesses they have no defense to.

At the time in the village, the tribe made their presence felt again. A young mother, a young mother with a toddler girl, was in the forest collecting food when she detected them.

“There were calls, shouts from people, numerous of them. As if it was a whole group shouting,” she shared with us.

It was the initial occasion she had encountered the Mashco Piro and she ran. An hour later, her thoughts was still pounding from fear.

“Since there are timber workers and companies clearing the jungle they are escaping, possibly because of dread and they end up in proximity to us,” she stated. “We are uncertain how they will behave with us. That's what terrifies me.”

Recently, two loggers were assaulted by the tribe while fishing. One man was wounded by an arrow to the abdomen. He lived, but the other man was found dead after several days with nine injuries in his physique.

The Peruvian government follows a policy of non-contact with secluded communities, making it prohibited to initiate encounters with them.

The strategy was first adopted in the neighboring country subsequent to prolonged of lobbying by tribal advocacy organizations, who noted that initial contact with isolated people could lead to whole populations being wiped out by illness, poverty and malnutrition.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in the country first encountered with the outside world, 50% of their community died within a short period. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua tribe suffered the same fate.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are highly at risk—from a disease perspective, any exposure might transmit diseases, and including the basic infections may decimate them,” explains a representative from a tribal support group. “In cultural terms, any exposure or interference could be highly damaging to their way of life and well-being as a society.”

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