Isolated indigenous peoples in the Amazon: the most vulnerable
“Indigenous peoples are living libraries.
(Sage Bernardo Alves, of the Sateré-Mawé indigenous people)
They are the guardians, caretakers and gardeners of the Amazon and the Planet.
Every time an indigenous people is exterminated and disappears,
a face of Tupãna (God) dies,
the cosmos, the planet and all humanity are impoverished.”

Caring for the “Common Home” and for all the beings that inhabit it…
In the Encyclical “Laudato Si – on Care for the Common Home” (2015), Pope Francis denounces: “Many highly concentrated forms of exploitation and degradation of the environment can not only wipe out local subsistence resources, but also social capacities that have enabled a way of life that for a long time has given cultural identity and a sense of existence and coexistence. The disappearance of a culture can be as or more serious than the disappearance of an animal or plant species. The imposition of a hegemonic lifestyle linked to a mode of production can be as harmful as the alteration of ecosystems” (LS 146).
The Pope goes on to stress the importance of indigenous peoples for the care of the Common Home and warns of the pressures to which they are subjected: “In this regard, it is essential to pay special attention to aboriginal communities with their cultural traditions. They are not just a minority among others, but must become the main interlocutors, especially when it comes to advancing major projects that affect their areas. For them the land is not an economic good, but a gift from God and the ancestors who rest on it, a sacred space with which they need to interact in order to sustain their identity and values. When they remain in their territories, they are precisely the ones who take the best care of them. However, in various parts of the world, they are under pressure to abandon their lands in order to free them for extractive and agricultural projects that pay no attention to the degradation of nature and culture” (LS 147).
Caring for the “Common Home” and for all the beings that inhabit it…
CIMI is an organ of the National Conference of the Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) at the service of the mission to the Indigenous Peoples. It was founded in 1972 by the prophet bishops Pedro Casaldáliga and Tomás Balduino, among others. CIMI is organized in 11 Regional Offices and a National Secretariat in Brasilia for national and international articulation and advocacy(www.cimi.org.br).
CIMI’s prophetic mission over the course of its more than 40 years of existence has been and is fundamental for the survival of indigenous peoples, joining with them in their struggles of resistance and insurgency, in the conquest of rights and differentiated public policies, demarcation and defense of territories, etc. The military government of the 1980s had officially decreed the disappearance-integration of Brazil’s indigenous peoples by the year 2000. CIMI, together with other civil society organizations, supported the indigenous movement until it succeeded in reversing this genocidal military project. Today, Brazil’s indigenous peoples continue to grow at a rate higher than the national average.
CIMI – Jesuits Agreement (BRA)
As Jesuits, we feel deeply grateful and privileged to join with CIMI in this common mission with indigenous peoples. To better concretize this mission, a mutual aid agreement was signed (Dec/2015) between the Jesuits of Brazil, in the person of the Provincial Fr. João Renato, and the National CIMI, in the person of its President, Msgr. Roque Palocci. “This agreement between CIMI and a religious congregation is a new and very important historical step. It can serve as an inspiration for other institutions… And thus strengthen together the prophetic and political commitment of the Church with the indigenous peoples” – said Msgr. Erwin Kräutler, bishop emeritus of Xingú, threatened with death for defending the lives of the indigenous peoples of the region.
It is within this agreement of mutual collaboration in the mission with isolated indigenous peoples that the CIMI – Jesuits (BRA) common fund has been established with the Entreculturas Foundation : INDIOS AISLADOS AMAZONIA.
CIMI Support Team for Indians in Isolation (EAIA)
The EAIA was founded by CIMI in the 2000s. The missionary anthropologist Fr. Gunter Kroemer (1939-2009) was the first articulator of this team. Gunter, a German by birth, invested his entire life in the service of indigenous peoples and, in particular, the “uncontacted”. It defended -together with the CIMI- the thesis of “no-contact” as the best way to defend their lives and territories, and only accept contact when the isolated peoples themselves sought it or because their own existence was in danger and at risk.
This was the case of the Suruaha – “People of the Poison”, who, in order to avoid being massacred and exterminated by rubber tappers who had invaded their territory, Gunter and a CIMI team were forced to force contact in 1980. Gunter died in 2009 due to respiratory failure possibly caused by some kind of fungus he picked up on his last deep jungle entry investigating the presence of isolated Indians.
(Photo by Gunther Kroemer (Copyright: Christian Ender).
What is the VISION, MISSION and ORGANIZATION of the CIMI Indian Isolation Support Team?
VISION
At present, there are an estimated 160 human groups in the world with no contact with the West. Of these, some 145 are in Pan-Amazon. The National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) and CIMI have registered more than 100 references of isolated Indians in Brazil. And every day new groups appear due to the unbridled and predatory advance of the current system. With the increasing pressure on natural resources from extractive companies and large projects imposed on the Amazon, the most remote and remote parts of the forest are being invaded. There are fewer and fewer virgin spaces left where these peoples can take refuge and live in peace, in complete freedom and with their ancestral rights guaranteed.
The Amazon is the region of the world with the largest number of indigenous groups in isolation. Brazil is by far the country with the largest number (more than 100), followed by Peru with some 25 groups. The countries of the Amazon, and particularly Brazil, have a great historical responsibility, before the international community, to defend the lives of these peoples and protect their territories so that they are not invaded, nor are they exterminated. Generally, they are small groups and the “contact” is dangerous because they can catch an epidemic (flu, measles, smallpox, etc.) that can end up decimating or eliminating their population completely, as has happened many times throughout history.
This ecological and socio-cultural richness and diversity are deeply interlinked. Satellite photographs show that the most conserved areas of the Amazon are those demarcated in favor of indigenous peoples. Indigenous lands are even more preserved than national parks or environmental protection areas. This is due to the profound relationship of reciprocity and care with which indigenous peoples relate to the land, feeling it as the Mother that breastfeeds and sustains them. That is why they take care of it, protect it and defend it “to the last Indian”. In the case of the isolated indigenous people, who are in the most remote and intact regions of the Amazon, this reciprocal relationship of mutual care and interdependence is even stronger and more delicate. Their existence and sustenance depends entirely on Mother Earth. They feel and live as “brothers and sisters of creation” (Pope Francis) with all the beings with whom they live.
All this balance that indigenous peoples maintain with the land is today deeply threatened in the Amazon. There are large economic interests that put pressure on this strategic region of the planet. They want to exploit their natural resources at any cost, without any consideration for their ancestral inhabitants. Without caring about their lives or the lives of all beings in this immense living community that is the Amazon.
Isolated indigenous peoples are the most vulnerable to this predatory invasion. They live in the most remote regions of the Amazon where natural resources are most intact. For this reason, the pressure and threat to them grows every day with the large development projects that are being imposed even in the last corners of the jungle where they live.
For CIMI, isolated indigenous peoples are one of the most vulnerable groups of people in the Amazon and in the world. They are victims of the violence of the imposed predatory global economic model. But they are also a living testimony of resistance to this globalization that standardizes and kills diversity, the life of humanity and the planet.
Historically, the indigenous peoples suffered much violence throughout the 500 years of “whitewashing” of Abya Yala (America, “Mature Land” in the Kuna language). In the Amazon, the process of extermination worsened at the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century due to the extractive cycles of rubber and other raw materials of high economic interest in the international market. The violence was so brutal that many peoples were exterminated and others, those who escaped the massacres, fled from “civilization” to the most remote parts of the jungle and headwaters of the rivers.
Currently, isolated villages continue to be the most vulnerable. They continue to be victims of the unscrupulous violence of “hired gunmen” hired by large projects and enterprises that want to exploit the natural resources of their territories. They are cattle ranching, agribusiness, logging, oil, mining, drug trafficking, roads, hydroelectric, waterways, etc. enterprises whose absolute principle is economic profit, without caring at all about the lives of these peoples who are, from their capitalist point of view, “minorities” blocking the advance of “development and civilization”. As the Indians live isolated in remote regions, there is no news of the violence they suffer and they end up being eliminated without anyone knowing about it.
MISSION
The general objective of CIMI’s Support Team for Isolated Indians is to guarantee the integrity and physical and cultural existence and the rights of isolated indigenous peoples. Specific objectives:
– Research, map and document the existence of isolated indigenous peoples, identify their territories and their possible invasions and threats;
– Collect “in locus” traces and evidence of their presence;
– Discover the situation in which they find themselves;
– Map the impacts of large economic and colonization projects and the environmental deforestation of their territories;
– Inform FUNAI and denounce to the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) the threats to their physical, cultural and territorial integrity so that the necessary measures can be taken to protect and defend their lives and territories;
– Demand that the Federal Government recognize the existence of these peoples, demarcate, protect and control their territories and natural resources;
– Denounce the violence they suffer so that they are not depredated and exterminated with impunity by large projects and economic interests;
– Political advocacy, at the national and international level, so that these isolated indigenous peoples and their territories are defended and protected, etc.
It is not about making contact with Isolated Indigenous Peoples. The aim is to demonstrate their existence, demarcate their territories and protect them from invaders so that they can live in peace, without having to flee continuously. They should be allowed to make contact when they want to, not when Western society wants to impose it on them, as it has done over the last five centuries. The objective is to protect their lives and territories from the depredation of the current economic system, forcing governments to recognize their existence and ancestral rights, to protect their territories. It is the obligation of the States, by the principle of vulnerability, to protect these peoples. Do not allow the entry of extractive companies to exploit the natural resources of their territories, nor allow the implementation of large projects with socio-environmental impacts that destroy their habitats and put their existence at risk.
A priority of CIMI’s isolated Indians team for these years is to work in the basin of the Tapajos River, one of the large tributaries south of the Amazon. In this basin , the Government is planning 43 large hydroelectric plants (power over 30 MW). FUNAI already has 7 records of isolated indigenous groups in this region. Some of them, such as the Amazon Park, were identified by CIMI – together with the Sateré Mawé people – in 2012 and 2013. And the Munduruku people, who inhabit the basin, continually provide new information about vestiges and even sightings of their isolated relatives.
One of the strategies to confront and attempt to paralyze the Tapajos hydroelectric megaproject is to demonstrate the existence of these isolated groups throughout the basin. It would also make visible the strong impacts it would have on the region’s ecosystem and the lives of the indigenous peoples that ancestrally inhabit it, particularly the isolated peoples who are the most vulnerable to accelerated changes in their traditional habitat.
In the identifications we carried out in 2015 in the middle Tapajos basin, several invasions of the territory were geo-referenced and documented, as well as traces of the possible presence of isolated Indians in the region. For security reasons, we only present here the map with the GPS coordinates of the invasions of logging branches, clandestine sawmills and garimpo (illegal mining) of gold and precious stones, etc. This situation has been denounced and reports have been sent by the National Secretary of CIMI to the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) for appropriate action. The coordinates and description of the isolated Indian vestiges found are also always sent first to FUNAI. In the event that the respective public bodies do not take the necessary measures for the protection of these isolated indigenous people, CIMI will denounce and put pressure, nationally and internationally, on these facts.
Organization
Human resources: For the defense and protection of indigenous peoples in isolation, CIMI has organized an “ad hoc” team with reference persons from the different regions where these peoples live. Human resources are scarce and therefore missionaries (lay and religious) who offer themselves and have the profile for this challenging and precious mission are always needed.
Material resources: boats and speedboats for large navigable rivers and canoes with small motors for streams full of logs and obstacles, which can climb up to the headwaters and springs; equipment for documentation and report preparation such as computers and tablets, GPS with high sensitivity antenna so they do not lose the signal under the dense canopy of the jungle, waterproof cameras and filming cameras; high-sensitivity sound recorders, solar panels, solar chargers for rechargeable batteries, batteries, solar lanterns, machetes and knives, tarpaulins for camps, mosquito nets, hammocks, drinking water and food…
Financial resources: for the sustenance of the team members; purchase, replacement and repair of technical equipment; expeditions and trips, transportation and gasoline, food; work meetings, meetings and training of the members of the support team for the isolated peoples; preparation of reports and materials (texts, articles, magazines, booklets and publications, photos and videos, radio programs, etc.) to disseminate this reality and denounce the violation of human rights against these peoples…
The costs of this mission in Panama are very high. The region is very extensive and the distances are enormous. Transportation and prices of products coming from abroad are expensive. In particular, the work of protecting peoples in isolation, who are in the most remote and difficult to access regions, requires more resources, more days, more fuel and more specialized equipment that make this mission very costly. That is why collaboration and solidarity with this mission in the two “jungles” is fundamental.
Isolated Indians: a mission in the two jungles!
CIMI carries out its mission to protect and defend the lives and territories of peoples in isolation on three fronts: public awareness about this reality; resource capture and financial resources for this challenging mission and for the political incidence to protect and defend the lives and territories of indigenous peoples in isolation.
The service to this mission must be considered both on the ground, in the Amazon jungle and rivers, and in the “asphalt and concrete jungle” of the great cities and centers of economic and political power in the world. Without this great articulation in all the “forests” in favor of life and the care of the Common Home, the Amazon and its peoples will be depredated, especially the most vulnerable, the “isolated Indians”.
On the other hand, the Amazon and the indigenous peoples who inhabit and care for it (because they feel intimately part of it) are very important for the balance of the planet and the future of humanity. In particular, indigenous peoples in isolation are the caretakers of the most intact and remote regions of the Amazon rainforest. They are “guardians and gardeners of the world”. Humanity and the planet need indigenous peoples, and in particular, peoples in isolation.
We insist. Isolated indigenous peoples are the most vulnerable. Their future no longer depends (only) on them… It depends, above all, on us. They need the support of humanity, of the peoples of the West. Just as the isolated indigenous peoples defend their territories with determination, “to the last Indian”, so that they are not depredated, the peoples of the “asphalt and concrete jungles” have to fight, “to the last Indian”, against consumerism and the predatory development model that the capitalist model has imposed, putting at risk the life of humanity and of the planet itself.
And we, in our institutional and congregational “jungles”, are we willing to play it “to the last Indian”? They take care of us by defending the Amazon rainforest… And we, do we take care of them by taking care of our lifestyle and consumption? Let us make a great heart, a great alliance among all the peoples of all the “jungles”, in favor of all beings and forms of life of the Common Home, especially the most vulnerable!
“If we don’t go, they kill them” (Bishop Alejandro Labaka, died 07/21/1987).
This is how clear the bishop had it Alejandro Labaka and Sr. Inés Arango (both from the Capuchin family). They, with generosity and prophecy, immolated their lives in June 1987 to defend the life of the isolated Tagaeri people from the ambition of the oil companies in the Yasuni Park, Coca, Ecuadorian Amazon. Faced with the imminent entry of the oil companies and the consequent massacre of the Tagaeri, Alejandro and Inés took a gamble: “If we don’t go, they’ll kill them,” said Alejandro a few hours before making his last trip. And Inés leaves a note in her room: “If I die I leave happy and I hope no one knows about me. I am not looking for a name or fame. God knows. Always with everyone, Inés”. Both missionaries felt in their hearts that this was the definitive and full crossing to the other side of the mysterious “River of Life”.
Traveling along the borders: where wounds are most open and life is most threatened!
On the occasion of the canonization of José de Anchieta, Father General Adolfo Nicolas writes a letter (02-04-2014) to the whole Society of Jesus encouraging us to a true apostolic and itinerant ardor. Referring to Anchieta, he affirms: “He was certainly not moved to lead this itinerant life by any spirit of adventure, but by a spirit of availability for the mission, of spiritual freedom and of readiness to seek and find the will of the Lord at all times. He was accompanied to the end by a truly apostolic ardor. Since I do not deserve to be a martyr in any other way,” he wrote, “may death at least find me helpless in one of these mountains and there leave my life for my brothers. The disposition of my body is weak, but the strength of grace, which from the Lord will not be lacking, is sufficient for me”.
General continues: “Shouldn’t itinerancy – with all that it implies in terms of spiritual freedom, availability and the ability to discern and make choices – be one of the indispensable characteristics of our apostolic body? Anchieta’s continuous pilgrimage, almost a way of life, could inspire today and encourage our search for apostolic mobility, in order to respond to the challenges posed by the new frontiers.”
CIMI Support Team for Indians in Isolation (EAIA)
On April 6, 2017, we will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of the martyrdom of Bro. Vicente CañasKiwxi – its indigenous name. He was killed in Mato Grosso by gunmen sent by a landowner who wanted to invade the territory of an isolated people, the Enawene-Nawe. To defend their territory and their lives, Kiwxi gave his life. They were only 97 people when they were contacted by Kiwxi in 1974. Today there are more than 1,000!
“Among the traditional Christians is that some Seeds of the Word must be found and discovered. Among the Enawene-Nawe, true Rest of Yahweh, those seeds are already forests and produce fruits of life, of bliss” (Kiwxi).
In the end, the Amazon and its indigenous peoples, and especially the isolated peoples, are a gift and a grace that marks the soul, one’s vocation and spiritual experience, life and existence. This mission makes it easier to taste and feel “God in all things and all things in Him”, as Ignatius of Loyola would say. A mission that helps to engage life and care for the Common Home and all beings that inhabit it to the ultimate consequences.
In the footsteps of the “isolated relatives”…
Fernando LópezThe Jesuit, assigned to support CIMI in the Team for the Support of Isolated Indians, gives us his testimony of itinerancy through the geographical and symbolic frontiers of the Amazon in the footsteps of the isolated brothers: “It is a gift and an immense gift to be part of the CIMI team for the support of indigenous people in isolation. It is a profound, consoling and indescribable experience. The regions where the isolated brothers take refuge are remote, often untouched and unspoiled. These are jungle areas that, on many occasions, not even the expedition’s own Indian guides are familiar with. We searched for, identified and documented with GPS coordinates, photos, videos and field reports the traces of the presence of “isolated relatives” or “brave warriors” – as the Indians of the region familiarly call them. We also recorded the invasions we encountered, the threats to their territories and their very existence. With this well-documented information, we try to influence politically in different governmental and social instances, to protect and defend their lives and territories. It is an enormous privilege to be there: To enter the headwaters of the rivers and the deep jungle accompanied by indigenous people of the region; to be eyewitnesses and experiential witnesses of the habitat of the “last free peoples” of the planet; to step on that sacred land, “common home”, to see, smell, hear, eat and drink the same as those “free brothers and sisters”; to feel in the skin the cold sweat and in the acceleration of the heartbeat the threats, invasions and conflicts that threaten their territories and their own physical and cultural life…. There are moments when the blood boils in our veins: either out of awe at the grandeur of creation in these jungles and rivers; or out of indignation at the violence and depredation imposed by our civilized world? Companions: let us unite in prayer and mission, in all the frontiers and “jungles” where the wounds are most open and life is most threatened, because one jungle without the other has no solution. And because “if we don’t go, they kill them” – as Msgr. Alejandro Labaka.
Questions for personal and/or group reflection
- Did you know this reality of isolated indigenous people? Have you ever heard of them?
- Should they be kept in isolation? Should the Western world contact them?
- On whom does the future of isolated indigenous peoples depend?
- What can we do to defend the lives and territories of isolated indigenous people?
If you want to give us your opinion, send us an email to noticias@entreculturas.org.
You can also make a bank transfer:
Deposit account: ES42 0049 0496 8021 1019 3874 (BANCO SANTANDER)
Very important: when making the transfer, please specify in the concept your name, surname and the subject “INDIOS AISLADOS AMAZONIA”, so that the income can be identified correctly. Likewise, if you wish to deduct your donation, please send an email to Elvira Martínez(e.martinez@entreculturas.org) with your name and surname, postal address, contact telephone number and/or email address, adding the date and value of your donation.
Please note that you may contact Entreculturas at any time to request information about this project and its results.