Kin throughout the Woodland: The Struggle to Defend an Remote Amazon Group

Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a small open space deep in the Peruvian rainforest when he heard footsteps drawing near through the thick forest.

He became aware that he stood hemmed in, and halted.

“One person positioned, directing with an bow and arrow,” he recalls. “And somehow he became aware that I was present and I began to escape.”

He ended up face to face the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—dwelling in the small village of Nueva Oceania—served as virtually a neighbour to these nomadic tribe, who shun contact with outsiders.

A new document issued by a human rights group claims exist at least 196 described as “isolated tribes” left in the world. This tribe is believed to be the biggest. It states a significant portion of these tribes could be decimated within ten years unless authorities don't do more measures to safeguard them.

It argues the biggest dangers stem from timber harvesting, mining or drilling for petroleum. Isolated tribes are highly susceptible to basic sickness—consequently, it notes a threat is presented by contact with evangelical missionaries and digital content creators seeking clicks.

In recent times, the Mashco Piro have been appearing to Nueva Oceania more and more, according to locals.

This settlement is a angling village of several families, located elevated on the edges of the local river deep within the of Peru rainforest, half a day from the nearest town by boat.

The territory is not designated as a safeguarded zone for isolated tribes, and logging companies work here.

Tomas reports that, on occasion, the sound of logging machinery can be detected day and night, and the tribe members are seeing their woodland disrupted and destroyed.

Among the locals, inhabitants state they are divided. They are afraid of the projectiles but they hold strong respect for their “kin” who live in the jungle and wish to defend them.

“Allow them to live as they live, we must not alter their traditions. This is why we preserve our distance,” states Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the harm to the tribe's survival, the danger of violence and the likelihood that timber workers might subject the Mashco Piro to illnesses they have no defense to.

During a visit in the village, the group appeared again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a young mother with a young child, was in the jungle gathering produce when she noticed them.

“We detected shouting, shouts from others, a large number of them. As though there were a large gathering shouting,” she shared with us.

This marked the initial occasion she had encountered the group and she ran. An hour later, her thoughts was continually pounding from anxiety.

“Because exist loggers and companies cutting down the woodland they are fleeing, perhaps because of dread and they end up near us,” she said. “We don't know how they will behave with us. That is the thing that scares me.”

In 2022, two loggers were assaulted by the Mashco Piro while angling. A single person was hit by an projectile to the stomach. He recovered, but the other person was found dead after several days with multiple injuries in his body.

The administration has a policy of no engagement with secluded communities, rendering it illegal to start contact with them.

This approach was first adopted in Brazil following many years of campaigning by community representatives, who saw that early exposure with remote tribes lead to entire communities being eliminated by sickness, poverty and starvation.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in Peru made initial contact with the world outside, 50% of their people succumbed within a matter of years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua tribe faced the same fate.

“Secluded communities are extremely at risk—in terms of health, any interaction may introduce sicknesses, and even the basic infections may eliminate them,” says an advocate from a tribal support group. “From a societal perspective, any contact or disruption can be highly damaging to their life and well-being as a group.”

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