Brazil: “Harpy Eagle” tribe and uncontacted
neighbors in Amazon face annihilation
The Uru Eu Wau Wau are famous
for tattooing around their mouths with genipapo, a black
dye made from an Amazonian fruit.
© Fiona Watson/Survival
(1991)
Waves
of ranchers and other settlers are overrunning the
territory of a recently-contacted Brazilian tribe with
the support of local politicians. It is being described
in the region as “the worst land invasion in decades”
and could wipe out nearby uncontacted
people.
The
Uru Eu Wau Wau Indians are known as the “Harpy Eagle”
people, as they use the bird’s huge feathers to make
hunting arrows and headdresses. They call their
uncontacted neighbors the Jururei, meaning “brave
ones.”
We
know very little about uncontacted peoples, but we do
know that whole
populations are being wiped out by genocidal
violence from outsiders who steal their land and
resources, and by diseases like flu and measles to which
they have no resistance. The Uru Eu Wau Wau were
decimated following first contact in the 1980s.
Clear felling and burning of
forest in Rôndonia photographed from the air by
Brazilian NGO Kaninde, close to uncontacted Indians and
the Uru Eu Wau Wau
© Kaninde
The
Rôndonia state government operates a long-standing
colonization scheme next to the tribe’s territory.
Settlers are now entering the territory, despite the
fact part of it is a national park, and three groups of
uncontacted Indians live inside it. Local landowners and
politicians are now promoting a new wave of
invasion.
Aerial
photos show large areas of the tribe’s territory being
burned down by settlers clearing the land. As well as
several tribal peoples, the region is also home to
unique Amazonian pine trees as well as a distinctive
landscape of waterfalls, cave formations and plateaus.
Endangered species like the black shouldered opossum,
giant armadillo, and razor billed curassow depend on
these environments for their survival.
Members
of the tribe wrote to federal police on August 8, but
the authorities have yet to act. In the letter, the
Indians said: “We are very worried because the invasions
are close to our villages and putting the lives of
women, old people, children and men at risk…. The
situation is extremely serious and the invaders must be
removed quickly before Indians and invaders die in
confrontations inside the indigenous territory.”
"Isolated Uru Eu Wau Wau
villages seen from the air, Brazil"
© Fiona
Watson/Survival
The
Uru Eu Wau Wau tribe was contacted by Brazilian
government agents in 1981. Official policy at the
time was to forcibly contact uncontacted tribal peoples.
This led to them being exposed to infectious
diseases.
Although
the tribe’s land rights were officially recognized in
1991, campaigners are concerned that not enough is being
done to protect their hugely biodiverse homeland.
Uncontacted tribes are the
most vulnerable peoples on the planet, and face
catastrophe unless their land rights are respected.
Survival’s
Director Stephen Corry said: “Land theft is the biggest
problem tribal peoples face. Around the world,
industrialized society is stealing tribal lands in the
pursuit of profit. What’s happening in Brazil is simply
a continuation of the invasion and genocide which
characterized the European colonization of the Americas
and it’s time this land theft was recognized for the
serious and deadly crime it is. Uncontacted peoples’
right to their land is protected in Brazilian and
international law and government should respect
this.”
Read
this online: http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/11476
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