🔗 Share this article

Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a small open space far in the of Peru rainforest when he heard sounds coming closer through the thick woodland.

He realized that he had been encircled, and halted.

“One person was standing, directing using an arrow,” he states. “And somehow he detected I was here and I began to escape.”

He ended up confronting the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—who lives in the small village of Nueva Oceania—had been almost a local to these nomadic people, who reject interaction with strangers.

A recent document by a human rights organization states remain a minimum of 196 of what it calls “uncontacted groups” left in the world. This tribe is believed to be the largest. The study claims a significant portion of these communities might be eliminated in the next decade unless authorities don't do more measures to safeguard them.

It claims the most significant threats come from deforestation, digging or exploration for petroleum. Isolated tribes are highly susceptible to ordinary disease—therefore, it states a threat is caused by contact with proselytizers and online personalities in pursuit of clicks.

Lately, Mashco Piro people have been venturing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, based on accounts from locals.

Nueva Oceania is a angling village of a handful of households, perched atop on the banks of the Tauhamanu waterway in the heart of the of Peru Amazon, a ten-hour journey from the most accessible town by canoe.

This region is not recognised as a safeguarded zone for uncontacted groups, and timber firms work here.

Tomas says that, on occasion, the racket of logging machinery can be detected day and night, and the Mashco Piro people are witnessing their forest disrupted and destroyed.

Within the village, people state they are divided. They fear the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also possess deep respect for their “kin” who live in the jungle and want to protect them.

“Allow them to live according to their traditions, we must not modify their culture. This is why we maintain our distance,” states Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the damage to the community's way of life, the risk of conflict and the possibility that loggers might introduce the tribe to sicknesses they have no immunity to.

During a visit in the settlement, the tribe made themselves known again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a young mother with a young daughter, was in the jungle gathering fruit when she heard them.

“There were cries, cries from people, a large number of them. As if there was a large gathering calling out,” she informed us.

It was the first time she had come across the group and she fled. After sixty minutes, her mind was still pounding from anxiety.

“As exist loggers and operations cutting down the woodland they are fleeing, perhaps due to terror and they come close to us,” she said. “It is unclear how they might react towards us. That is the thing that scares me.”

Two years ago, a pair of timber workers were attacked by the tribe while fishing. A single person was hit by an bow to the gut. He recovered, but the other man was discovered lifeless subsequently with several injuries in his frame.

The administration maintains a approach of avoiding interaction with isolated people, rendering it prohibited to initiate interactions with them.

The policy originated in Brazil following many years of advocacy by indigenous rights groups, who noted that early exposure with isolated people could lead to whole populations being wiped out by disease, destitution and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in Peru came into contact with the broader society, a significant portion of their community died within a matter of years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua community experienced the same fate.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are highly at risk—epidemiologically, any contact may spread sicknesses, and even the simplest ones might decimate them,” says Issrail Aquisse from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “Culturally too, any contact or interference can be extremely detrimental to their existence and survival as a group.”

For local residents of {