‘Uncontacted’ Amazon tribe use bows and arrows to kill two loggers in attack
Two loggers have been killed by arrows in an attack on an indigenous tribe in the Amazon. Two others are still missing.
Members of Mashco Piro, an indigenous community that has long been isolated from society, attacked workers who were clearing a path in the Madre de Dios region of the forest.
FENAMAD, an organisation representing more than 30 communities in the region, said the conflict took place in an area near the Pariamanu River.
At least two workers were killed by arrows, another was wounded and two are missing, said Daniel Pena, spokesman for the organization. FENMAD has previously lobbied the government to protect the Maschco Piro forest.
This came after members of the tribe injured someone in another attack with bows and arrows in August.
The Mashco Piro were spotted swinging spears on the banks of a river in remote Peru (photo taken in June)
Survival International fears the tribe is being displaced from the rainforest due to logging in the area (pictured in June)
Members of the Mashco Piro have been seen outside their territory in recent months, according to footage from the NGO Survival International. According to the NGO, the community is under enormous pressure from the logging industry.
In June, footage was released showing Mashco Piro brandishing spears on the banks of a river in remote Peru.
According to the Ministry of Culture, at least four people have been killed in fighting with the Mascho Piro between 2015 and 2022, including workers and residents of the area.
Incredible footage was also captured of the tribe standing around in small groups, some jogging to pick up large spears lying in the dirt, others talking and gesticulating to each other and helping to carry items along the river.
‘These incredible images show large numbers of isolated Mashco Piros living alone, just a few kilometres from where the loggers are due to start their work,’ said Caroline Pearce, director of Survival International, at the time.
According to the NGO, the Mashco Piros are rarely seen and hardly communicate with others.
Tribesmen rest on the banks of the river while others carry spears and pause to talk (photo in June)
Rare photos show the tribe emerging from the rainforest and interacting on the riverbanks (photo taken in June)
Experts fear the tribe is being forced from their homes by nearby logging activities (photo in June)
The tribe rarely has contact, even with other tribes, and keeps to itself in a small area in southeastern Peru (photo in June)
Several logging companies own timber concessions in the area where the Mashco Piro live.
According to Survival International, one company, Canales Tahuamanu, has built more than 200 kilometres of roads for its logging trucks to use to extract wood.
The company is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, which indicates that it has 53,000 hectares (130,000 acres) of forest in Madre de Dios for the extraction of cedar and mahogany.
In 2022, members of the Mashco Piro tribe shot two Catahua workers with bows and arrows while they were fishing on the Tahuamanu River, killing one person.
Survival International is now calling on the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to decertify Catahua’s activities and for support to protect unreached tribes.
The Mashco Piro have also been spotted across the border in Brazil, said Rosa Padilha of the Indigenous Mission Council of the Brazilian Catholic bishops in the state of Acre.
“They are fleeing from loggers on the Peruvian side,” she said.
The tribe was seen in rare footage from June walking along the banks of a river in Peru’s Madre de Dios region (June photo)
‘At this time of year they come to the beaches to get (Amazon turtle) eggs. Then we find their footprints in the sand. They leave a lot of turtle shells.
“They are a people without peace, restless, because they are always on the run,” Padilha said.
According to Survival, there are more than 100 pristine tribes worldwide, but many of these tribes are threatened with extinction due to destruction of their habitat by outsiders.
The report warns that the Peruvian government has still not signed into law several indigenous territories on which these groups depend for their survival.
There are similar fears for tribes on the other side of the world. In Indonesia, the Hongana Manyawa are facing eviction from their home atop the world’s largest nickel deposit on Halmahera Island.
Some came out of their isolation for the first time to ask miners for food as they moved through the forest to make way for new mines.
Survival International warned that they do not know how long the tribe will survive after the encounter.
Contact with outsiders can be life-threatening due to exposure to new diseases to which isolated people would not have built up resistance.