HOAX: The Lost Amazonian Tribe That Wasn't

They are the amazing pictures that were beamed around the globe: a handful of warriors from an 'undiscovered tribe' in the rainforest on the Brazilian-Peruvian border brandishing bows and arrows at the aircraft that photographed them.

Or so the story was told and sold. But it has now emerged that, far from being unknown, the tribe's existence has been noted since 1910 and the mission to photograph them was undertaken in order to prove that 'uncontacted' tribes still existed in an area endangered by the menace of the logging industry.

The disclosures have been made by the man behind the pictures, José Carlos Meirelles, 61, one of the handful of sertanistas - experts on indigenous tribes - working for the Brazilian Indian Protection Agency, Funai, which is dedicated to searching out remote tribes and protecting them.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Kalima]

The strong Republican nominee that wasn't! Same thing, different country.

[jubo]

You mean that ain't Crawford, Texas?

[ZenJu]

That's okay. The Arab League took the hodgepodge of Arab refugees from Mandatory Palestine (whom the Arabs had penned up in festering camps as wards of UN charity to use as weapons against Israel) and christened them "Palestinians" in 1964, founding the PLO and creating a fake "nation" at a stroke. The world fell for it and today they number in the millions, and their grandchildren are still pawns for the Arab/Islamic world. The funny part is how well they sold the idea to the world and how readily y'all bought it.

[feo]

They were just hard to find, like autoworkers in Detroit.

[cargocult]

i expressed skepticism at the original reporting and continue to do so.

the 'hoax' is the idea that HP has any credibility in relaying scientific-related stories or even cares. The story came with a sensation image attached so they ran with it. Following the links to the BBC or however is only marginally better.

If the sertainistas stayed out of the PR business and HPost stayed away from science reporting, ALL cultures would be safer.

[MTGradwell]

The original story was correct, Huffpo ran with it, and were right to do so. Huffpo actually has a good record with stories, but they occasionally crash and burn spectacularly when it comes to headlines, as they have done on this occasion. When a tribe hasn't been known about since 1910, and nobody has known for certain whether they still exist or not since that date, isn't it appropriate to call them uncontacted? There isn't a person alive today who has contacted the tribe. Nobody who knows anything about them other than the fact that they exist, and prior to the taking of the aerial photograph even that was in doubt. Probably little more than that was known about them even in 1910. If no-one had contacted you since 1910, wouldn't it be appropriate to call you uncontacted? Wouldn't you feel at least a little bit uncontacted?

The photo was taken in good faith, and the reports initially distributed with it were true. There was no hoax. There is no hoax. A hoax would be if those tribesmen were caucasians painted up and pretending to be tribesmen, If only it were possible to get people to read beyond the headline and ascertain the facts, they would know that there is no hoax here. But recent years have shown this to be an impossible dream. So, if Huffpo must have irresponsible headlines, it should at least ensure that they're directed at deserving targets. What have those tribesmen done to us?

[cargocult]

The original story, the latest story and all HP references to them (headlines and otherwise) are poor examples of journalism re:science/anthropology. Anyone who contends otherwise is pertetuating the 'hoax' :)

[lotuslike]

HOAX: Saddam Hussein Has Weapons of Mass Destruction

HOAX: Iran Enriching Uranium For Nuclear Weapons

[jubo]

HOAX: God Bless America

[ADR]

"...And finally we set up a small outpost where we can monitor their protection..."

Are they a protected species like the polar bear or bald eagle or something? I find it strange that these people are being talked about like they're some kind of animal. Are we going to trap some of these tribe members and put them in a zoo for our amusement?

[mulegino]

Sure they're considered sub-humans. That's the way the radical environmental fascists tthink of primitive, hunter gatherer societies- people to be kept in an eco-tourist friendly wildlife refuge, so that elitists from across the globe, enjoying every amenity, comfort, and luxury imaginable can get their jollies gawking at "the noble savage", then trapse back to their Sandals resort and praise the wisdom of the "simple life" to the middle and lower classes.
Keeping the "primitive peoples" of the world "safe" from development and progress, from things like running water, medical care, and education-is the surest way to ensure that their natural resources will be kept in reserve, so that some transnational company can come in and extract them when the time and profit levels are right.

[StandUpAmerica08]

It's now 3:27PM EST. Have we added these Amazonian 'TERRORIST' to the US Watch list yet?

[StandUpAmerica08]

It's now 1:41PM EST. Did we started building the nuclear waste dump next door to that native tribe yet?

[StandUpAmerica08]

It's 1:40PM EST. Has the oil drilling started yet? I'm sure that lost tribe knows something about some oil America can suc.k up and claim their own.

[BufordTvoter]

Do people even read articles anymore, or just the headlines? If anyone bothered to read the articles when these photos came out they would have already known this information. The last time they made contact was in 1910ish and the tribe decided to shun the outside world. I read three articles when these photos came out and none of them made attempts to hide the fact that this tribe was never discovered.

"Indigenous peoples left alone for 100 years" might be better wording, but "Lost Tribe" sells more papers.

[MTGradwell]

Because it was known in 1910 that there were people in the area- the tribe isn't "lost"? If your exact location was unknown since 1910, and nobody knew if you were still alive or not since then, would you not be "lost"? Even now, nobody outside these tribes can say what their language is, or how they live their lives. Since previous overflights showed only empty huts, nobody could say for certain even that there was anybody still there.

Yet it is true that they aren't lost. They know where they are, even if they don't know our name for the place, or that it is part of a continent located on a globe, or even that we exist except as giant buzzing birds. It's us that are lost. They may make war on neighboring tribes, we don't know about that, but they don't destroy entire civilizations and ways of life to get hold of a few logs, or of some flammable liquid that comes from under the ground. We do. Whenever it looks like we can't get any more lost, we surpass ourselves. Now we'll happily allow the habitat of these people to be destroyed because it was, after all, just a hoax.

[JScott]

Sad in a way that to call to attention the destruction of the rain forest, that they had to resort to this.
Apparently just looking at Google Earth to see the destruction of the rain forest is not dramatic enough.

[mathme]

Resort to what? I'm not sure what you're referring to-- photographing indigenous people?

[splendidbeast]

I don't think this is a "hoax", and I wish there were still areas in the world that could be considered wild. But you want to talk about hoaxes, I'm enjoying listening to the same media that capped each show with the so called "teen pregnancy pact" try to sound like they were only reporting this fabrication because it was all the talk on the internet and talk radio. While ignoring the fact that the reason that it was all the talk because the MSM were the ones reporting it.

[PhilD]

HOAX: "I do not think it means what you think it means"...