Relatives throughout this Woodland: The Struggle to Defend an Isolated Amazon Tribe

The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a modest glade far in the of Peru rainforest when he noticed movements approaching through the thick jungle.

He realized he was encircled, and stood still.

“A single individual stood, aiming using an arrow,” he remembers. “Somehow he noticed I was here and I began to flee.”

He had come encountering the Mashco Piro tribe. For decades, Tomas—dwelling in the small community of Nueva Oceania—served as almost a local to these nomadic people, who shun engagement with strangers.

Tomas shows concern regarding the Mashco Piro
Tomas shows concern towards the Mashco Piro: “Permit them to live as they live”

A new study from a human rights organisation states exist at least 196 described as “remote communities” left globally. This tribe is believed to be the biggest. It says 50% of these tribes may be wiped out over the coming ten years should administrations don't do additional actions to defend them.

It claims the biggest threats come from timber harvesting, extraction or exploration for oil. Remote communities are highly susceptible to basic disease—as such, the report says a threat is posed by interaction with religious missionaries and online personalities looking for attention.

Lately, Mashco Piro people have been coming to Nueva Oceania increasingly, according to locals.

This settlement is a angling village of a handful of families, sitting atop on the edges of the Tauhamanu waterway in the center of the Peruvian jungle, a ten-hour journey from the nearest settlement by boat.

The area is not designated as a safeguarded area for isolated tribes, and deforestation operations function here.

Tomas reports that, on occasion, the noise of industrial tools can be detected day and night, and the tribe members are witnessing their jungle damaged and destroyed.

Among the locals, residents state they are conflicted. They fear the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also possess strong regard for their “relatives” residing in the woodland and want to safeguard them.

“Permit them to live as they live, we must not alter their culture. For this reason we preserve our distance,” states Tomas.

Mashco Piro people photographed in Peru's Madre de Dios province
Tribal members photographed in the local area, in mid-2024

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are worried about the harm to the tribe's survival, the risk of aggression and the chance that deforestation crews might subject the Mashco Piro to sicknesses they have no resistance to.

During a visit in the settlement, the Mashco Piro made their presence felt again. A young mother, a young mother with a toddler child, was in the jungle gathering food when she noticed them.

“We detected cries, shouts from others, a large number of them. Like it was a crowd yelling,” she told us.

That was the first instance she had met the group and she fled. After sixty minutes, her thoughts was persistently pounding from anxiety.

“Since there are deforestation crews and companies cutting down the woodland they are escaping, maybe out of fear and they arrive in proximity to us,” she stated. “We don't know what their response may be towards us. That is the thing that frightens me.”

Recently, a pair of timber workers were assaulted by the Mashco Piro while catching fish. One man was hit by an bow to the gut. He recovered, but the second individual was found dead subsequently with several arrow wounds in his physique.

This settlement is a modest angling hamlet in the Peruvian rainforest
The village is a small river village in the of Peru forest

The administration maintains a approach of non-contact with secluded communities, making it illegal to start encounters with them.

The strategy was first adopted in the neighboring country following many years of campaigning by tribal advocacy organizations, who noted that first exposure with remote tribes could lead to entire communities being wiped out by disease, destitution and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau community in the country made initial contact with the outside world, 50% of their community perished within a matter of years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua community suffered the identical outcome.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are highly at risk—from a disease perspective, any exposure could introduce sicknesses, and even the simplest ones may wipe them out,” states Issrail Aquisse from a local advocacy organization. “Culturally too, any interaction or intrusion may be very harmful to their way of life and health as a community.”

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Bob Franco
Bob Franco

A passionate gaming enthusiast and writer, specializing in online casino reviews and strategies for Indonesian players.