Isolated Indians
In recent years there have been at least 42 evidences of the existence in Brazil of 'isolated Indians'. That is the denomination given to those Indians which the organ of the Federal Government in charge of Indian affairs, the Fundação Nacional do Índio - National Foundation for the Indian - Funai has not established contact. No one knows for sure who they are, where they are, how many they are and what languages they speak.
The little that is known about them is that 25 of those evidences have occurred within Indigenous Lands that have already been demarcated or have some degree of recognition by Federal organs. Of the 42 evidences, Funai has already confirmed 12.
Scarce information
The few reports written about these peoples show sometimes pictures of objects found in the area where they were sighted. Oral reports generally are made by other Indians or ‘whites’ from the region, who recount fortuitous encounters or simply reproduce information given by others about the existence of such groups.
It was through oral reports, for instance, that most of the information known about the Hi-Merimã, who live the region of the mid-Piranha River, between the Juruá and the Purus rivers, in the State of Amazonas, was obtained. In 1943, this Indian group, which became known for their conflicts with neighboring populations, was estimated as having more than 1,000 individuals. No one knows how many they are today: the Hi-Merimã rejected any contact with the encroaching society, and even with other Indians, with whom they maintain, even today, hostile relations.
Isolated or contacted?
The idea that there are Indians who were capable of keeping themselves in isolation since the arrival of the Portuguese, and thus that there are societies that were unaffected by all the changes that took place in Brazil since then, is misleading. Even the groups that are considered ‘isolated’ have often had longtime relationships with segments of national society, as the case of the Hi-Merimã, who have had some kind of contact with non-Indians for at least sixty years, illustrates.
Isolation represents, in many cases, an option made by the group. It may be based upon its relationship with other groups, on the history of the attraction fronts in the region where they live and also on the existence of geographic conditions that make isolation possible. The big news for the ‘isolated’ Indians, therefore, refers to regular contact with others, especially with Funai.
Since 1987 Funai has a unit for the location and protection of those Indians – the Departamento de Índios Isolados (Department of Isolated Indians), coordinated by the sertanista (Indian expert) Sidnei Possuelo. Today there are six such work forces, called ‘fronts of ethno-environmental protection’: Avá Canoeiro (State of Goiás), Envira River (State of Acre), Guaporé (State of Rondônia), Madeirinha River (States of Rondônia and Mato Grosso), Purus River (State of Acre) and Javari River Valley (State of Amazonas).
Currently, four groups that have already been contacted are still considered ‘isolated’ by Funai, which gives them special assistance. They are the Kanoê and the Akuntsu, of the State of Rondônia, first contacted five years ago; the Zo'é, of the State of Pará, contacted eighteen years ago; and a small group of Korubo, contacted four years ago for the first time.
The case of the Zo'é
It was in 1989 that Funai first made contact with the Zo'é, a Tupi-Guarani group that lives on the Cuminapanema River basin, in the State of Pará. Those Indians, however, had had relations with Protestant missionaries since 1982; in addition, there were indications of contacts for more than 80 years with non-Indians.
Today the Zo'é continue to be considered ‘isolated’ by Funai. Yet they have become a kind of showcase of what is left of the cultural exoticism of the Brazilian Amazon Region, and are frequently visited by foreign photographers and filmmakers. At the same time, they are going through a learning process of categories alien to their cultural universe, especially in consequence of the experience of delimitation of their lands, which was carried out between 1996 and 1998. Since then, the exchanges with segments of Brazilian society such as doctors, anthropologists, Indian experts, environmentalists etc. has become unavoidable.
A case of option for isolation exists in the Tanaru region, in the Southern part of the State of Rondônia. This time it is not a group, but a single man. It seems that his people has died out, victim of the violence and greed of the cattle raisers that came to settle the region in recent decades. Funai has been trying to offer him assistance since 1996, but every time his camp was identified he abandoned it. He has completely rejected contact, even though he did accept some of the presents left by the sertanistas, such as pots and machetes.
The case of the Korubo
Another recent experience of contact involved the Korubo, who live in the Javari River Valley, in the State of Amazonas. This Indian group became famous in the media in 1996, when the first contact of part of its population by a Funai expedition, led by a sertanista and followed by National Geographic reporters, was transmitted live and online to the whole world.
Known as ‘hitting Indians’ because they do not use bows, the Korubo have been fighting, for over thirty years, a limited war against the population of the region, in spite of mutual efforts for approximation. The group with which contact was made, of 17 individuals, has separated from the original group, who continue to hide.
