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| Awá children, Brazil. The confirmation of the existence of the Indians near to the Katukina tribe comes just after confirmation of a group of uncontacted Awá Indians in the eastern Amazon. © Fiona Watson/Survival |
A previously unknown Indian tribe has been spotted in the south-western Amazon.
The group, who were encountered by members of a neighboring tribe known as the Katukina, were apparently short, long-haired, and had painted their bodies with urucum [red annatto] dye.
The Katukina said that the uncontacted Indians were not aggressive and that they tried to communicate verbally. ‘We could understand everything’, one Katukina called Carnaval said.
Having received consistent accounts from various Katukina Indians of signs of the uncontacted Indians, FUNAI, Brazil’s Indian Affairs Agency, has decided to mount an expedition to the Rio Biá indigenous territory to search for and record traces of the uncontacted Indians in order to protect them from outsiders.
Non-Indians pass through the area where the uncontacted Indians are believed to live, and it is close to an illegal airstrip, possibly used by drug traffickers.
It is feared that outsiders in the area could pass on diseases to the uncontacted Indians, to which they have little immunity. Past occasions of first contact with Indians have led to many dying from illnesses such as flu.
