Astonishing photos show uncontacted Amazon tribes for the first time – and the ingenious technique they used to protect themselves from the outside world

Amazing photos taken deep in the Brazilian rainforest show an uncontacted Amazon tribe for the first time.

The footage, taken with automatic cameras, appears to show the Massaco tribe arming themselves with machetes and axes left behind by Brazil’s National Indigenous Peoples Foundation (Funai).

Funai has worked for decades to preserve the area and ‘periodically’ leaves metal tools behind in an effort to deter uncontacted communities from entering farms or logging camps in search of tools. The Guardian reported.

The government body calls the tribe the Massaco, after the river that flows through their land, but it is not known exactly what the tribe calls itself.

The group’s language, beliefs and social structure also remain a mystery, but the new photos show that the community is flourishing.

Despite continued pressure from miners, farmers, drug traffickers and illegal activities, Massaco’s population has at least doubled since the 1990s. Funai estimates that the community now numbers 200 to 250 people.

There are 61 confirmed groups living in the Amazon and the Gran Chaco region, according to a draft report by the International Working Group on Isolation and First Contact with Indigenous Peoples.

However, experts say there are reportedly 128 communities in the region that have not yet been verified by authorities.

Funai placed automated cameras in the Amazon at locations where tools are typically left as gifts for uncontacted locals, the report said.

In February this year, cameras captured a group of men, believed to be Massaco, collecting weapons left behind by Funai officers.

Previous observations and satellite photos of settlements in Massaco showed that the group was beginning to adapt to protect itself from outside threats.

They have tried to deter unwanted visitors by planting thousands of camouflaged foot- and tire-piercing solid wood nails in the ground.

It was also revealed that the tribe hunts for food with ten-foot bows and moves their villages from season to season.

Funai agent Altair Algayer, who has protected Massaco territory for more than 30 years, said the new footage has helped authorities learn more about the tribe.

“Now with the detailed photos it is possible to see the similarity with the Sirionó people, who live across the Guaporé River in Bolivia,” he said. ‘But still we can’t tell who they are. There’s a lot that’s still a mystery.”

According to experts, the growth of the Massaco indicates a trend of population growth among isolated people, despite the pressure of environmental destruction.

Satellite images from 2023 showed evidence of larger built-up plots and elaborate longhouses, especially in areas along Brazil’s borders with Peru and Venezuela, the scientific journal Nature reported.

There is also evidence of growth among nomadic communities that do not build large structures in the forest or grow crops.

Despite these successes, researchers warn that illegal land grabs and environmental destruction continue to threaten isolated communities in the Amazon.

Brazil pioneered a public policy of no contact with indigenous people in 1987, after decades of government-directed contact had resulted in the deaths, mainly from disease, of 90 percent of those with whom contact was recorded.

Antenor Vaz, who was among the first to implement no contact in Massaco in 1988, praised Brazil for developing best practices in this area, but added that the country has no law specifically protecting isolated peoples.

He said: ‘Peru and Colombia have robust legislation, in Brazil and other parts of the continent the steamroller of agribusiness and other predatory forces prevail over laws and indigenous rights.’