Message #145401

[Bianca]

Reports of "Contact"



Reports from less isolated tribes who have met the "uncontacted" groups also attest to the dislocation.

Beatriz Huertas, a top official with CIPIACI, an international committee comprised of indigenous organizations from six South American countries, was among a small group of specialists that spent nearly three weeks in the area researching and documenting the displacement.

"We haven't made direct contact, since we have to respect them and take care not to spread diseases they are not protected from, but we've flown over the area and spoken to other tribes from the region who have had first-hand contact," Huertas said.

"There is no doubt," she continued. "It is proven that they are fleeing."

Huertas said the "uncontacted" tribes affected by the illegal logging activities are probably from the Peruvian region of Ucayali, which borders the Brazilian state of Acre.

She said the indigenous people are believed to be either Pano speakers or else from the Mashco Piro ethnic group, whose language derives from Arawak.

Sydney Possuelo, who was responsible for implementing Brazil's policies protecting Indians in the late 1980s, stressed that such details of the "uncontacted" tribes are not known for certain.

"We know the location of some, and there are reserves to protect them. But everything about their language, culture, and habits has to be treated as supposition," he said.