Remarkable new footage shows members of one of the world’s most secluded tribes — which is known for firing arrows at outsiders who get too close — emerging from the rainforest in Peru near several controversial logging sites.
Members of the Mashco Piro tribe — which is believed to be the biggest group of indigenous people living with no outside contact — were spotted near the Las Piedras River a few miles from tree-cutting projects in Southeastern section of the country, the Indigenous rights advocacy group Survival International said Tuesday.
“This is irrefutable evidence that many Mashco Piro live in this area, which the government has not only failed to protect, but actually sold off to logging companies,” Alfredo Vargas Pio, president of the local Indigenous organization Fenamad, said in a press release.
The tribe emerged in search of food, near the remote villages of Monte Salvado and Puerto Nuevo, in recent weeks — and Pio fears fights will break out between loggers and the Indigenous people, he said.
Loggers could also bring to the area new diseases, which threaten to wipe out the tribe, he said.
Indigenous advocates are demanding authorities yank certification from the nearby logging company Canales Tahuamanu, which building roads inside Mashco Piro territory, according to Survival International
The company has been granted permission to log on the jungle land since 2002 and its activity now is now sprawled out over 193 square miles, The Washington Post reported in May.
The firm also has a history of clashing with local tribes, the paper reported.
Despite the Mashco Piro tribe’s seclusion, they have had limited contact with outsiders — and much of it was violent.
In recent years they have been seen firing arrows at tourist boats and even fired a “warning arrow” at a park ranger in Manu National Park. The violence reached its apex, however, when tribe members killed a member of another tribe, Nicolas “Shaco” Flores, who had been trying to contact them.
However, some members of the tribe have emerged from the forest to try and trade for machetes and food with residents of nearby villages and Christian proselytizers.
Catahua did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the past, the firm said its workers have never reported seeing any Mashco Piro people and has complied with laws in Peru, where it is illegal to contact the tribe.
Last year, the United Nation’s special rapporteur on Indigenous rights asked Catahua to halt logging and respond to allegations of “possible forced contact” with the Mashco Piro.
The government has declined to intervene in the past.
