Isolated Amazon Tribe Seen In Rare Footage Drone Captured In Brazilian Rainforest

Drone footage taken of an area of the dense Amazon rainforest in the far west of northern Brazil showed 16 members of an isolated tribe making their way through the jungle. The clip was made public on Tuesday.

The tribe had never been photographed or videographed before 2017, when FUNAI, the Brazilian government body that establishes and carries out policies relating to indigenous peoples, captured a video of the tribe on an expedition in Vale do Javari or the Javari Valley — a reserved indigenous territory in the southwestern part of Amazon — during an attempt to monitor isolated communities.

"These images have the power to make society and the government reflect on the importance of protecting these groups," said Wallace Bastos, FUNAI's president, Chicago Tribune reported.

Members of the still unidentified tribe were seen carrying bows and arrows as they navigated their way through the forest.

The agency said although it had been studying the area for years, it only got the first glimpse of the isolated tribe last year and got the opportunity to record video evidence. In order to protect the findings of the study, it decided to delay the release of the footage by a year.

FUNAI added that although it had confirmed the existence of over 11 tribes in Javari Valley – more than ever discovered anywhere else in Brazil – the agency had hardly any information regarding them except a few guesses about their ethnicity and the language that they speak.

"The more we know about isolated communities' way of living, the more equipped we are to protect them," Bastos said.

Bruno Pereira, who coordinates FUNAI's study of isolated groups in the region, said although most tribes were aware of the farms and cities that existed beyond the forests, they intentionally chose to isolate themselves due to traumatic experiences with the outside world. "If they wanted contact with the outside world, they would seek out ways to communicate with us," Pereira said.

Excessive external contact with the tribes can often be harmful to the indigenous groups, who lack immunity to diseases like flu. “The vulnerability of these peoples is growing,” Beto Marubo, a Javari indigenous leader, told the United Nations permanent forum on indigenous issues in New York in April, the Guardian reported. “There is no effective protection.”

The tribal leaders have blamed Brazilian President Michel Temer – a conservative – for deliberately refusing to assign more resources to agencies like FUNAI, which serve to protect the indigenous groups.

“Michel Temer wants to end indigenous lands,” says João Gomes Kanamari, 49, a member of the reserve’s Kanamari tribe. “We have a lot of wood. We have a lot of gold and mining resources.”

A group of illegal gold miners allegedly killed 10 people in an isolated community last year. The tribes are also deprived of food sources as fishermen haul away up to half a ton of protected species of fishes like pirarucu and 700 turtles in a single visit.

Paulo da Silva, the coordinator of the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley, said the organization had reached out to the Norwegian government for help. “These invasions are going to regions where the isolated live,” Paulo da Silva said. “We are there with folded arms, and we can’t do anything.”