Fighting for the Survival of Uncontacted Tribes Conserving virgin rain forests and their fauna is one thing. But preserving their people? For many Westerners, the ideal wilderness would seem to be one without humans. From safari reserves to television wildlife documentaries, their spoiling presence is excluded. But in countries where these indigenous tribes persist, there’s another perception: this being the 21st century, not some prehistoric Eden, they should get with the program. If they choose to live like savages, that’s their problem. Fiona Watson of Survival International, the only group to campaign for tribal rights worldwide, first saw the attitude towards South American Indians in their own lands in the 1980s, when, in her previous incarnation as a linguist, she studied the language of the Quechua in the Peruvian Andes. “Here were the Quechua, who’d been here since pre-Inca times–it was their land and their country–and yet there was so much discrimination and racism against them,” Watson recalls. “That’s when I got interested in the whole issue of indigenous tribes.” Top of Form Bottom of Form In her 20 years as a researcher and field director with Survival, Watson has followed the trail of discrimination up to ministerial level. “A lot of the governments look on these people as backward and primitive, and that is often used as a pretext for taking over their land,” she says. “There’s a tendency to look at them and say, ‘Oh, well, actually, they’re the ones who have to catch up and join our world.’ ” Her campaigning work currently focuses on the “uncontacted tribes” of the vast Amazon Basin. These elusive–and, in the opinion of many officials, mythical–peoples made the headlines globally in 2008 when photographs showed brightly painted members of one such tribe firing arrows at a government surveillance aircraft. Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Uncontacted Indians in Brazil, May 2008. Many are under increasing threat from illegal logging over the border in Peru. Survival International estimates that there are over 100 uncontacted tribes worldwide. The photos were taken in the state of Acre, northwest Brazil, where the country’s Indian affairs department, FUNAI, estimates there could be up to 600 uncontacted Indians living in four groups. Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form The Matis are a recently contacted tribe. Photos © Fiona Watson/Survival Another uncontacted tribe of some 300 individuals, living in the Massacó territory, has been identified in the neighboring state of Rondônia. Watson says the overall estimated number in Brazil has grown rapidly–from an estimated 20-40 uncontacted groups to more than 70 in the space of just several years. Similarly isolated Amazon tribes are reported in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Ironically, “the more penetration there is of the Amazon, the more reports there are of these people,” Watson says. She suspects the reason why they have remained hidden ...

1. Fighting for the Survival of Uncontacted Tribes
Conserving virgin rain forests and their fauna is one thing. But
preserving their people?
For many Westerners, the ideal wilderness would seem to be
one without humans. From safari reserves to television wildlife
documentaries, their spoiling presence is excluded. But in
countries where these indigenous tribes persist, there’s another
perception: this being the 21st century, not some prehistoric
Eden, they should get with the program. If they choose to live
like savages, that’s their problem.
Fiona Watson of Survival International, the only group to
campaign for tribal rights worldwide, first saw the attitude
towards South American Indians in their own lands in the
1980s, when, in her previous incarnation as a linguist, she
studied the language of the Quechua in the Peruvian Andes.
“Here were the Quechua, who’d been here since pre-Inca times–
it was their land and their country–and yet there was so much
discrimination and racism against them,” Watson recalls.
“That’s when I got interested in the whole issue of indigenous
tribes.”
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
In her 20 years as a researcher and field director with Survival,
Watson has followed the trail of discrimination up to ministerial
level. “A lot of the governments look on these people as
backward and primitive, and that is often used as a pretext for
taking over their land,” she says. “There’s a tendency to look at
them and say, ‘Oh, well, actually, they’re the ones who have to
catch up and join our world.’ ”
Her campaigning work currently focuses on the “uncontacted
tribes” of the vast Amazon Basin. These elusive–and, in the
opinion of many officials, mythical–peoples made the headlines
globally in 2008 when photographs showed brightly painted

2. members of one such tribe firing arrows at a government
surveillance aircraft.
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
Top of Form
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Uncontacted Indians in Brazil, May 2008.
Many are under increasing threat from illegal logging over the
border in Peru. Survival International estimates that there are
over 100 uncontacted tribes worldwide.
The photos were taken in the state of Acre, northwest Brazil,
where the country’s Indian affairs department, FUNAI,
estimates there could be up to 600 uncontacted Indians living in
four groups.
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
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The Matis are a recently contacted tribe.
Photos © Fiona Watson/Survival
Another uncontacted tribe of some 300 individuals, living in the
Massacó territory, has been identified in the neighboring state
of Rondônia. Watson says the overall estimated number in
Brazil has grown rapidly–from an estimated 20-40 uncontacted
groups to more than 70 in the space of just several years.
Similarly isolated Amazon tribes are reported in Peru, Bolivia,
and Ecuador.
Ironically, “the more penetration there is of the Amazon, the
more reports there are of these people,” Watson says. She
suspects the reason why they have remained hidden for so long
from the outside world is that they have deliberately avoided

3. contact with it.
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Those in western regions likely represent the remnants of rain
forest peoples who were decimated during the Amazon rubber
boom of the late 19th century, when colonists tapped into the
latex-producing rubber trees. “I think that historic memory is
still there, so they regard any outsider with suspicion,” she
adds. “They aren’t so isolated that they aren’t aware what’s
happening around them.”
Common infections that didn’t hinder those who carried them
into the Amazon proved deadly to native populations. “Isolated
indigenous people are much more susceptible because they
haven’t got immunity to things like flu or measles,” Watson
said. “The uncontacted people have no immunity at all.”
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An aerial photograph of an Urueu Wau Wau village.
Photo © Fiona Watson/Survival
Before 1987, when FUNAI ended its policy of establishing
contact with these groups and trying to integrate them into
mainstream society, it wasn’t unusual for 50 percent of a tribe
to be wiped out in the first year, Watson says. Today’s
colonizers carry an additional threat–automatic weapons. “If
there’s a chance encounter with an uncontacted group it could
easily escalate into violence. Indians with bows and arrows are
simply no match.”
In the western Amazon region, where encroachment by cattle
ranchers, loggers, miners and farmers is greatest, at least one
vulnerable group, known as the Indians of the Rio Pardo, is
thought to have been the victim of a genocide which is under
federal investigation. Miners have reportedly boasted of
killings, but because the tribe is uncontacted, and its numbers
are unknown, gathering evidence is a difficult task, Watson

4. says.
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The overriding issue, according to Survival, is land. If the
territories of uncontacted tribes are not protected, they will
disappear completely. “You might argue they have the most to
lose because they depend so utterly on their land–it’s their
entire livelihood,” Watson says. “And because they are
uncontacted, they won’t know what their rights are–they can’t
stand up and defend themselves. That’s one of the reasons why
Survival is focusing on these people.”
The latest major threat comes from a massive hydropower dam
construction program, a centerpiece of Brazil’s Accelerated
Growth Program, launched in 2007 by President Lula.
Top of Form
Bottom of FormOne of the tribal peoples in Rondônia who will
be affected by the Madeira dams and related infrastructure.
Survival is campaigning to halt two of these dams, both in the
early phases of construction on northwest Brazil’s Madiera
River, the largest tributary of the Amazon River. The scheme
received government approval despite the fact that FUNAI says
at least five uncontacted groups are in the area impacted by the
Santo Antonio dam.
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5. Despite FUNAI’s findings, the electricity company Furnas
Centrais Eléctricas, and federal environmental officials, dispute
the existence of such people, Watson reports.
She says the infrastructure associated with these largescale
projects, such as roads, are just as damaging because they fuel
the colonization and destruction of the rain forest. “Before you
know it you have thousands and thousands of people flooding
in, cutting down trees, invading indigenous territories, hunting
the wildlife they depend on, and so on.”
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The Santo Antonio dam being built on the Madeira river is very
near to several groups of uncontacted Indians.
Photo © Survival
The recent huge success of the movie Avatar may be timely. Set
on the planet Pandora, the sci-fi epic tells of the eco-warrior
Na’vi tribe who must defend their sacred and fabulously
biodiverse forests from invading human miners.
It isn’t a coincidence that James Cameron, Avatar’s director,
visited the Amazon this month.
This time in front of the camera in tribal face paint, he was
there to highlight the threat posed by another vast hydroelectric
project, the Belo Monte Dam in the state of Pará.
If Cameron isn’t yet aware of the Madiera dams campaign, he
soon will be, Watson promised. The Avatar parallel to the
Amazonian situation is a powerful one. “It really encapsulated
that monumental struggle, where people, particularly the
uncontacted people, can just be crushed so instantly if these

6. projects go ahead,” she says.
“They are the most vulnerable people on our planet,” Watson
adds. “Are we going to stand by and let a whole people be
destroyed for what some think is progress. Progress for who?
It’s certainly not progress for them.”
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James Owen has been a journalist for 15 years, first as a news
and sub-editor for national and regional newspapers in the U.K.,
then as a freelance writer and columnist. Specializing in
science, history, the environment, natural history and fly-
fishing, he writes both for print and online media, including
National Geographic News. He is currently writing a natural
history book about trout.
1. What two points of view are presented in this text?
2. What point of view does the author side with? Give specific
examples from the text to explain how you know this.
3. Which point of view do you side with? Give reasoning to
support your opinion