Proof of life: tracking elusive Amazon group to save their land
For now, the nameless, elusive people -- perhaps belonging to more than one group -- remain among dozens of so-called "uncontacted" communities believed to roam the world's biggest rainforest.
"My sister-in-law told me: 'Over there! Over there!' And it was a little boy staring at me from up close," recounted Takamyi Asurini, an elder in Ita'aka -- an Indigenous village of about 300, whose accounts of close encounters have fed theories of the existence of uncontacted people in Ituna/Itata.
Asurini showed AFP a scar on his ribs he said was the result of being shot with an arrow by an unknown person in the jungle.
Such testimonies, and the objects found, are not considered proof of the existence of people in Ituna/Itata.
But it is enough for the region to enjoy a provisional protected status meant to prevent invasions by miners, loggers and ranchers -- preserving both the forest and the people thought to live there.
The area covers tens of thousands of hectares and is similar in size to Sao Paolo -- the biggest city in Latin America.
It became one of the most overrun Indigenous territories in Brazil under former president Jair Bolsonaro, a backer of agro-industry on whose watch Amazon deforestation surged.
Now, lobby groups want the Ituna/Itata region's protection to be made permanent, which would mean stricter land use rules and enforcement.
'Historical neglect'
For this to happen, the government's National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (Funai) would have to send expeditions to look for undeniable proof of the group's existence.
Part of the challenge is the dense Amazon jungle is home to rich, varied ecosystems that support migratory agriculture for Indigenous peoples, who may travel to hunt, fish and gather food seasonally.
Under law, any searchers cannot make contact with them -- potentially putting them at risk of diseases they have no immunity to -- but are to look instead for footprints of their life in the forest.
Brazil recognizes 114 "uncontacted" Indigenous groups who live with no or minimal interaction with others.
About a quarter are "confirmed," while for the rest -- like in Ituna/Itata -- there is "strong evidence" that they exist.
For Luiz Fernandes, a member of umbrella group Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), there has been "historial neglect" of the issue by the state, which he says "recognizes the possibility of the existence of these peoples but does not guarantee effective measures to protect the territory."
Added Mita Xipaya, an Indigenous activist: "the state needs qualified records" to prove that an area hosts uncontacted people, "but for us it is different: we perceive them in nature, in the sounds we hear, their presences, sometimes their smells."
'Taking care of the forest'
The Brazilian Amazon has lost nearly a third of its native vegetation since records began in 1988, according to environmental NGO Instituto Socioambiental -- except in Indigenous territories where the figure is less than two percent.
From 2019 to 2022, the Bolsonaro government suspended the provisional protection measures decreed for Ituna/Itata, prompting an invasion by land grabbers, turning it into the most deforested Indigenous area in Brazil.
Though the protection was reinstated under his leftist successor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the consequences persist, and miles-wide patches of devastated soil intersperse areas of green rainforest, AFP observed during a recent flyover.
Brazil will in November host the COP30 UN climate conference in the Amazonian city of Belem under Lula, who has sought to position himself as a leader in forest preservation and the fight against global warming.
"It's not just about taking care of the forest but also of the people who inhabit it, because it's through them that the forest remains standing," COIAB coordinator Toya Manchineri told AFP.
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France 24
3 days ago
- France 24
Proof of life: tracking elusive Amazon group to save their land
Archaeological finds like these keep turning up, and date back to at least 2009, with members of a neighboring clan claiming to have caught glimpses of individuals who live in the Ituna/Itata region in Brazil's northern Para state. For now, the nameless, elusive people -- perhaps belonging to more than one group -- remain among dozens of so-called "uncontacted" communities believed to roam the world's biggest rainforest. "My sister-in-law told me: 'Over there! Over there!' And it was a little boy staring at me from up close," recounted Takamyi Asurini, an elder in Ita'aka -- an Indigenous village of about 300, whose accounts of close encounters have fed theories of the existence of uncontacted people in Ituna/Itata. Asurini showed AFP a scar on his ribs he said was the result of being shot with an arrow by an unknown person in the jungle. Such testimonies, and the objects found, are not considered proof of the existence of people in Ituna/Itata. But it is enough for the region to enjoy a provisional protected status meant to prevent invasions by miners, loggers and ranchers -- preserving both the forest and the people thought to live there. The area covers tens of thousands of hectares and is similar in size to Sao Paolo -- the biggest city in Latin America. It became one of the most overrun Indigenous territories in Brazil under former president Jair Bolsonaro, a backer of agro-industry on whose watch Amazon deforestation surged. Now, lobby groups want the Ituna/Itata region's protection to be made permanent, which would mean stricter land use rules and enforcement. 'Historical neglect' For this to happen, the government's National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (Funai) would have to send expeditions to look for undeniable proof of the group's existence. Part of the challenge is the dense Amazon jungle is home to rich, varied ecosystems that support migratory agriculture for Indigenous peoples, who may travel to hunt, fish and gather food seasonally. Under law, any searchers cannot make contact with them -- potentially putting them at risk of diseases they have no immunity to -- but are to look instead for footprints of their life in the forest. Brazil recognizes 114 "uncontacted" Indigenous groups who live with no or minimal interaction with others. About a quarter are "confirmed," while for the rest -- like in Ituna/Itata -- there is "strong evidence" that they exist. For Luiz Fernandes, a member of umbrella group Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), there has been "historial neglect" of the issue by the state, which he says "recognizes the possibility of the existence of these peoples but does not guarantee effective measures to protect the territory." Added Mita Xipaya, an Indigenous activist: "the state needs qualified records" to prove that an area hosts uncontacted people, "but for us it is different: we perceive them in nature, in the sounds we hear, their presences, sometimes their smells." 'Taking care of the forest' The Brazilian Amazon has lost nearly a third of its native vegetation since records began in 1988, according to environmental NGO Instituto Socioambiental -- except in Indigenous territories where the figure is less than two percent. From 2019 to 2022, the Bolsonaro government suspended the provisional protection measures decreed for Ituna/Itata, prompting an invasion by land grabbers, turning it into the most deforested Indigenous area in Brazil. Though the protection was reinstated under his leftist successor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the consequences persist, and miles-wide patches of devastated soil intersperse areas of green rainforest, AFP observed during a recent flyover. Brazil will in November host the COP30 UN climate conference in the Amazonian city of Belem under Lula, who has sought to position himself as a leader in forest preservation and the fight against global warming. "It's not just about taking care of the forest but also of the people who inhabit it, because it's through them that the forest remains standing," COIAB coordinator Toya Manchineri told AFP.
Euronews
19-07-2025
- Euronews
Native American teens kayak US river to celebrate dam removals
As bright-coloured kayaks push through a thick wall of fog, voices and the beats of drums build from a crowd of onlookers who have formed on the beach. Applause erupts as the boats land on the sandy spit that partially separates the Klamath River from the Pacific Ocean in northern California. Native American teenagers from tribes across the river basin push themselves up and out of the kayaks and begin to cross the sand, some breaking into a sprint. They kick playfully at the cold waves of the ocean they've been paddling toward over the last month - the ocean that's seen fewer and fewer salmon return to it over the last century as four hydropower dams blocked their ideal spawning grounds upstream. 'I think our ancestors would be proud because this is what they've been fighting for,' said Tasia Linwood, a 15-year-old member of the Karuk Tribe, ahead of the group's final push to the end on Friday 11 July. The Klamath River is newly navigable after a decades-long effort to remove its four hydropower dams to help restore the salmon run - an ancient source of life, food and culture for these paddlers' tribes who have lived alongside the river for millennia. Youth primarily from the Yurok, Klamath, Hoopa Valley, Karuk, Quartz Valley and Warm Springs tribes paddled 499 kilometres over a month from the headwaters of the Wood River, a tributary to the Klamath that some tribes consider sacred, to the Pacific Ocean. The teens spent several years learning to navigate white water through Paddle Tribal Waters, a program set up by the nonprofit Rios to Rivers, to prepare local Native youth for the day this would be possible. During their last days on the water, the group of several dozen swelled to more than 100, joined by some family members and Indigenous people from Bolivia, Chile and New Zealand who face similar challenges on their home rivers. Dams built decades ago for electricity Starting in the early 1900s, power company PacifiCorp built the dams over several decades to generate electricity. But the structures, which provided 2 per cent of the utility's power, halted the natural flow of a waterway that was once known as the third-largest salmon-producing river on the West Coast. With the dams in place, tribes lost access to a reliable source of food. The dams blocked the path to hundreds of miles of cool freshwater streams, ideal for salmon returning from the ocean to lay their eggs. Salmon numbers declined dramatically along with the water quality. In 2002, a bacterial outbreak caused by low water and warm temperatures killed more than 34,000 fish, mostly Chinook salmon. That galvanised decades of advocacy by tribes and environmental groups, culminating in 2022 when federal regulators approved a plan to remove the dams. Through protests, testimony and lawsuits, the tribes showcased the environmental devastation caused by the dams, especially to salmon. From 2023 to 2024, the four dams were dynamited and removed, freeing hundreds of miles of the Klamath. The renewable electricity lost by removing the hydropower dams was enough to power the equivalent of 70,000 homes, although PacifiCorp has since expanded its renewable sources through wind and solar projects. Two dams used for irrigation and flood control remain on the upper stretch of the river. They have 'ladders' that allow some fish to pass through, although their efficacy for adult salmon is questionable. On the journey, the paddlers got out of the river and carried their kayaks around the dams. For teens, a month of paddling and making memories The journey began 12 June with ceremonial blessings and kayaks gathered in a circle above a natural pool of springs where fresh water bubbles to the surface at the headwater of the Wood River, just upstream of the Klamath River. The youth camped in tents as they made their way across Upper Klamath Lake and down the Klamath River, jumping in the water or doing flips in their kayaks to cool down in the summer heat. A few kayakers came down with swimmer's ear, but overall everybody on the trip remained healthy. Nearly everyone had a story to share of a family's fishing cabin or a favorite swimming hole while passing through ancestral territory of the Klamath, Modoc, Shasta, Karuk and Yurok. More than 2,200 dams were removed from rivers in the United States from 1912 through 2024, most in the last couple of decades as momentum grows to restore the natural flow of rivers and the wildlife they support, according to the conservation group American Rivers. 'I believe that it was kind of symbolic of a bigger issue,' said John Acuna, member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe and a leader on the trip. Removal of dams represents end of long fight with federal government The federal government signed treaties with these tribes outlining their right to govern themselves, which is violated when they can't rely on their traditional food from the river. Acuna said these violations are familiar to many tribal communities, and included when his great-grandmother was sent to boarding school as part of a national strategy to strip culture and language from Native Americans. That history "comes with generational trauma,' he said. Their treaty-enshrined right to fish was also blatantly disregarded by regional authorities in the 1970s but later upheld by various court decisions, said Yurok council member Phillip Williams. Standing on a fog-shrouded boat ramp in the town of Requa awaiting the arrival of the youth, Williams recounted the time when it was illegal to fish here using the tribes' traditional nets. As a child, his elders were arrested and even killed for daring to defy authorities and fish in broad daylight. Fifty years later, with the hydropower dams now gone, large numbers of salmon are beginning to return and youth are paddling the length of the Klamath. 'If there's a heaviness that I feel it's because there's a lot of people that lived all in these places, all these little houses here that are no longer here no more," said Williams. 'They don't get to see what's happening today. And that's a heavy, heavy, feeling.' Even as a teen, Linwood says she feels both the pleasure of a month-long river trip with her friends and the weight of the past. 'I kind of feel guilty, like I haven't done enough to be fighting,' she said. "I gotta remember that's what our ancestors fought for. They fought for that - so that we could feel this joy with the river.'
France 24
21-06-2025
- France 24
Malaysia's Dayaks mark rice harvest end with colourful parade
The Gawai Dayak 2025 Parade in state capital Kuching is the only annual gathering by representatives of around 11 of Sarawak's main Dayak groups -- which participants said helps to keep alive a unique part of the Southeast Asian nation's culture. Marchers gathered from early Saturday under the blistering tropical sun, many of them travelling long distances by bus to walk in the parade along the banks of the Sarawak River. "This gathering is something that is very important to me," said Joel Zacchaeus Anak Ebi, sporting the traditional Iban headgear worn by one of Borneo's best-known tribes. People "must know and realise that Sarawak has traditions and cultures that must be preserved," he told AFP ahead of the march, which was also attended by Sarawak Premier Abang Johari Tun Openg. "A day like this brings our people together, especially the younger people, who can easily lose touch with their roots when they move away from Sarawak," said Dayak village elder Ngindang Rambo, 61. Watching the parade, Masha Timosha, 34, a tour guide from Russia, said she was amazed by the costumes and atmosphere. "This is just very impressive. I even have my own Sarawakian costume but I didn't put it on," she told AFP. Malaysia's Dayak people are mainly riverine and hill-dwelling, made up of dozens of ethnic groups, each with their own distinct dialect, customs, laws and practices. Dayak communities however have become increasingly under threat from encroaching palm oil forestry and industrial logging, human rights groups and Indigenous groups have said. Many Indigenous communities in Sarawak face challenges in accessing basic services, Human Rights Watch said in a statement last month, including access to running water, electricity and land titles. Local groups and international observers have also called on the government to "urgently legislate Indigenous customs and traditions through which Indigenous people have acquired rights to their lands, territories and resources," the Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (Sadia) said last year. Rainforest-clad Borneo is the world's third-largest island and is shared between Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.
