The Truth about the Lost Amazon Tribe "Hoax"

Last year José Carlos Meirelles, who works for the Brazilian government agency set up to protect the country's indigenous populations, released photographs that captivated the public imagination. Taken from an airplane swooping over the Amazon jungle, the pictures showed a group of Indians--their faces streaked with war paint, their bows drawn with arrows--that were said to remain uncontacted by the outside world.

Meirelles said that he had released the photographs to protect the tribe's territory from the onslaught of prospectors and loggers and farmers. In pursuit of such bountiful land, settlers had denied there were any remaining uncontacted Indians, and had mounted a campaign to open these territories for commercial use.

A few days after the photographs were made public, reports in the media surfaced that seemed to confirm the settlers' contention: the images were labeled "fakes," and widely dismissed as part of a "hoax," a "fraud," and a "PR joke."

Yet this perception was deeply misleading, and has had severe repercussions for the Indians in the region. As I document in my new book "The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon," even today parts of the Amazon--a wilderness area virtually the size of the continental United States--remain unknown. The Brazilian government estimates that there are more than sixty tribes that are secluded in the jungle. John Hemming, the distinguished historian of Brazilian Indians, has said that these forests are almost "the only place on earth where indigenous people can survive in isolation from the rest of mankind."

The dispute over the photographs stemmed from confusion over the meaning of "uncontacted," as these groups are commonly designated. Though Meirelles had never said the tribe was unknown, many in the press had initially portrayed the group as such. In fact, like many of these tribes, the group's existence had had long been known about--its presence detected either by frontiersmen or by satellite imagery. Indeed, it is likely that many of these tribes have had some form of fleeting "contact" with outsiders over the years.

But that did not make the photographs "fakes" or a "hoax." The reason these tribes are classified as "uncontacted" is because they have retreated into the jungle and consciously avoided any interaction with settlers--an interaction that has frequently led to the extinction of Amazonian tribes.

In 2005, I visited the Kalapalo Indians in the southern basin of the Amazon. The tribe lived in the Xingu, which is part of Brazil's first Indian reservation. (It was created in 1961.) While the tribe had been contacted by the Brazilian government several decades earlier, its fate gives some sense of the threat to these indigenous communities.

While I was there, I spoke with a member of the tribe named Vanite, whose job was to guard one of the posts on the reservation. He told me that the other day an Indian had come to him and said, "Listen, Vanite. You must come with me down the river. The white people are building something in Afasukugu." The word "Afasukugu" meant "the place of the big cats"; at this site, the Kalapalos believe, the first humans were created. Vanite picked up a stick and drew a map on the mud floor. "Here is Afasukugu," he said. "It is by a waterfall."

Vanite paused for a moment, then continued with his story. "So I said, 'I will go with you to Afasukugu, but you are crazy. Nobody would build anything at the place of the jaguars.' But when I get there the waterfall is destroyed. They blew it up with thirty kilos of dynamite. The place was so beautiful, and now it is gone. And I ask a man working there, 'What are you doing?' He says, 'We are building a hydroelectric dam.' "

The dam was being built in the middle of a major river that ran through the Kalapalos' territory. Vanite, who was becoming more agitated, said, "A man from the [Brazilian] government comes to the Xingu and tells us, 'Do not worry. This dam will not hurt you.' And he offers each us of money. One of the chiefs from another tribe took the money, and the tribes are now fighting with each other. For me, the money means nothing. The river has been here for thousands of years. We don't live forever, but the river does. The god Taugi created the river. It gives us our food, our medicines. You see, we don't have a well. We drink water right from the river. How will we live without it?"

After Vanite finished his account, the chief of the Kalapalos, who was standing beside him, concluded, "If they succeed, the river will disappear and, with it, all our people."

Comments

[MTGradwell]

It was pretty clear at the time when it was first being called a hoax that it wasn't actually a hoax.

Here's part of what I wrote in the "hoax" thread:

The original story was correct, Huffpo ran with it, and were right to do so. ... 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. ...

[BeFairNow]

I see your point too EvaDee, but isn't the act of banding together to prevent interference in itself an act of interference? The point I'm trying to make is that discovery of new people is at the top of a very slippery slope. They always live to rue the day they were 'found', regardless of our best intentions. We start meddling almost immediately, even if it's to try to stop harm coming to them. It is well documented in anthropological and sociological journals that the very process of being studied changes these societies irrevocably. You can't stroll in there with hand sanitizer, insect repellent, waterproofs, shoes, recording equipment, cameras and a tent and expect them not to be as curious about you and your way of life as you are about theirs. Just seeing an airplane in the sky will have altered their world a little bit already. You might be interested in a couple of obscure (and side-splittingly funny but thought provoking) movies called 'The Gods Must Be Crazy' about the Bushmen of the Kalahari.

[darker]

Huh? Somebody got lost on the INTERNET ON AMAZON?
DOT-COM?
Yikes! I better quit shopping that, wowie.

[Gunga-Din]

Yes .Fake.Falso. Absurd. Lies.Mentiras

[InTheSouth]

While my first thoughts are to preserve these people and their way of life, my second thoughts are should we really withhold current knowledge and technology from them? Should we encourage them to remain in a primative state totally unaware of the world and the universe? It seems we would be treating them much as we do our pets. It is hard to say which is better for them.

[ashleelisbeth]

WTF!?
Not everyone views the industrialized world as "progress".
I'd rather not introduce a tribe that has it's own culture, religion and way of life to some bullcrap homogenized Americanized lifestyle that we've succeeded at polluting the whole world with.

[SamKnause]

I agree. What is so great about depending on everyone else for everything you need, such as power, water, and food when you can be self sufficient?

[Coinyer101]

thank you. i've wondered often why folks made such light of this, regardless of the photos. these peoples need to be fully protected . the 'civilized' world owes them that.

[AN2009]

You're right about that; these people should be protected.

[Dugwood]

All of you folks who lament the loss of wilderness areas and the creatures - human and non that live there, just remember that most of you helped breed those very same creatures and their wild domains out of existence. Until this planet has some kind of sensible population management plan and a sustainable economy to go with it that does not require unrelenting growth to make it work - there can only be more of the same. The current financial disaster is nothing compared to what's coming if we continue our current paths of blind growth. Yes, the world needs protection - from us.

[Cailleach]

AT LAST!!! Someone is saying the unmentiona­ble--over-­population­! It's the greatest threat to life on the planet, including human life. It's also the prime cause of climate change. We simply cannot continue to breed as much as we do, and to use up the resources of the planet as we are. Our current attitude to natural resources is totally unsustainable. A "Great Die-Off" is coming, sooner rather than later. Am I a fear-monger? Damn straight, and it's time to pay attention.

[ashleelisbeth]

When I try and explain this to people, they think I'm crazy or that I just hate babies.

[JStilabo]

Yes we do need population control. Let's start with the people that thought that the proof of these peoples' existence was a hoax. I bet they are the same people who believe in god/jesus, even though they have no proof of their existence, only a fictional book written generations after the so-called time of jesus.

[Pometacom]

It is very important that the Amazon River be dammed and clearcut and all of the indigenous people be corraled and executed until none are left.

Hey, it worked great in the United States !!!!

No Indians. No problem.

[SamKnause]

Sadly this is exactly what I was thinking when I read this article. Progress is in the eye of the beholder. I'm sure Native Americans didn't see their way of life being destroyed as progress.

[WritingfromAlaska]

The story about the dam and using dynamite to blow up a sacred site is similar to what happened on the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington. Celilo Falls, a very important and significant fishing site, was blown up so that the dams could be built along the river. It is almost overwhelmingly sad to know that even if the dams were ever removed, the Falls are gone forever. I can't imagine how hearbreaking it would have been for the people who had used the site to supply their communities with food and had more to trade with tribes from other areas. This part of the Northwest was a major trade and exchange route before the westward expansion of the US territories. I don't recall the exact date that Celilo Falls were destroyed, but there is a film depicting it so I am thinking it was the 1930's.

[bliznik70000]

Actually, I just looked it up - the falls were left intact when flooded in 1957. If the dam were ever removed, the falls would return. They did a sonar survey last year to check if everything was still there, and sure enough, it was. Still a terrible shame such an historic site was destroyed, though. Unfortunately, it was the 50's, when technology could fix everything, and the river often caused major flooding downstream, like in 1948 when Vanport city was effectively destroyed.

Perhaps the rest of the world should step up and pay good money to see such things preserved. I'm sure Brazil would appreciate it.

[TheWanderer]

Indians? Are we still calling indigenous tribes "Indians" in the 21st century?

[priscianusjr]

Better call the language police. "Twenty-first" century? Are we still numbering years from the advent of Jesus Christ? "Century?" Are we still arbitrarily grouping years into hundreds? "Tribes?" Are we still using the biblical term "tribes" to refer to ethnic groups of non-Abrahamic peoples?

[TheWanderer]

1) 21st century, C.E. 2) Yes 3) Tribes is pre-biblical, referring to Latin, Sabine and Estruscan settlements (tri prefix referring to these "three." ) Webster Unabridged , 2nd definition - any local division of an aboriginal people.

[Coinyer101]

lol

[TFlint]

An African man once said "We don't mind if you talk about African tribes, so long as you also talk about the Swedish Tribe, the French Tribe . . . .

[gevan]

"Non-Abrahamic"? What might that translate to?

[Chip W]

And why arbitrarily use base 10 numbers? How about hexadecimal, or binary?

[atawfik25]

These people make me sad because it seems there way of life is doomed. What is the answer to the following question: Is it better to leave them alone despite the fact that this means they will most likely be contacted unofficially by people with perhaps less than honorable intent or is better to send anthropologists to make the meeting as non-disruptive as possible? I dont know the answer.

[BeFairNow]

I think the answer may not be as important as the question. Unfortunately, I think your question is moot already. Anthropologist or not, we know they're there and that means they're finished.

[GardenerNorCal]

When the Bushes buy land in South America in order to control the water rights. We all know what the next commodity or resource to be manipulated and controlled will be, and the environment and indigenous peoples be damned.

[WilliePilgrim]

Whether there were "unknowns" or "uncontacted" or "degenerate bands of amazonians still hangin' on following the plague of european introduced epidemics in the 1500's", the loss of natural features for the insatiable hunger for those things that modernity and its convenience can bring to us, it is a sad loss for something as naturally abundant as energy. Despite assertions to the opposite, there's lots of energy and the only shortage is human ingenuity to utilize it wisely. Dams and mines are sometimes neccessary to achieve short term goals but they have now become an industry whose inertia for doing the same destructive and profitable way prevents them from seeing the grand tragectory of human technology.
After reading Charles C. Mann's book "1491" I am left with a desire to see the Amazonian basin developed using the age old permaculture that the original civilizations there had deleloped and utilized for thousands of years, producing food and the sustaining virtues of their civilization now gone,b but I hope not forgotten entirely.
Once we finally get to that place where we are gathering our resources and energy from space, instead of mining our natural treasures, we'll be astonished at how short-sighted we'd been.

[BeFairNow]

'Once we finally get to that place where we are gathering our resources and energy from space, instead of mining our natural treasures, we'll be astonished at how short-sighted we'd been.'

This is exactly the kind of mindset I was trying to expose in my earlier post. We only think of new places, species, etc. in terms of consumption - of what need of ours they can fill. What right do we have to pillage space? Why don't we think in terms of consuming less or changing the way we understand and approach consumption rather than in terms of where we can look next to service our endless greed? I hope that if there is any intelligent life out there, they're smart enough to run like hell if they see us coming and take anything they value with them.

[anandakos]

BeFair,

Unfortunately exploitation and destruction of the environment is built into DNA; other species do it too. The difference is that we humans have developed technologies which prevent the Malthusian population crashes those other niche-dominant species suffer. At least so far.

That's why "(we don't) think in terms of consuming less...". While it may be clear to any thinking person that our technologies are decimating the living world and that humans must become fewer that other species may thrive, the imperatives of DNA will ensure that there are too many selfish people who will refuse to participate in any effective solution.

So, eventually our technologies will kill us too. It is such a terrible shame that by the time that happens we will have hideously impoverished the web of life on this spectacularly beautiful planet.

[PaiaGirl]

Or perhaps we can live a sustainable life and not have to take resources from ANYWHERE.

The Hawaiians had approximately the same population as Hawai'i has now and lived in plenty for a thousand years until the Europeans came.

[BMBTHC]

Dear Mr. Grann,
Your larger point was well illustrated. Clearly these people are not given much consideration in public works projects. I would be curious to know where or how they spend any money given to them. The modern way of life clearly demands that everybody participate. Dissenters be damned, even if they don't know that they are dissenting.
The media depiction of the "hoax" was certainly irresponsible and a good example of the sad state of journalism as practiced by the big companies. However I'm not convinced that the distinction between uncontacted and unknown and the cries of a fraudulent story had much to do with your story about the hydroelectric project. This doesn't mean that they are not connected, but I'd like to know more. I'm interested. Are you writing a larger piece on this?

[philopatris]

Once burned twice wise. Read sometime about the "undiscovered tribe" in the Philippines, "discovered" by anthropologists in 1971,the "gentle Tasaday" who "had no word for war". They were actually a bunch of countryside thugs that chain smoked off camera and were trained to speak their "lost language" so the Marcoses could rope off their supposed territory and sell mineral rights to all their friends.
WIKI Tasaday: "Elizalde claimed that among the 24 remaining Tasaday, there was no wife-sharing, adultery, or divorce. Their diet was claimed to be all forage, i.e., wild fruit, palm pith, forest yams, tadpoles, grubs, and roots. The calories in such a diet are less than the amount needed for survival, so they should have been paper thin. The apparent yams that they survive on were experiencing a shortage around the area where they lived. When dietitians and health advisors suggested further research, they were promptly banned from the Tasaday's home. An anthropologist reported seeing soldiers slipping cooked rice to the Tasaday, and he was banned as well." etc. etc. We don't need another Rainforest Schmainforest story straight off South Park.

[pfc1369]

Why did you not make unmistakably clear that the idea of "uncontacted" was the so-called 'hoax,' and not the photos themselves?

Isn't that the whole point?