Lethal arrows, trophy heads and eating monkeys: Inside the hundreds of ‘uncontacted’ tribes around the world

There are some people who just want to be left alone.

Scattered in remote pockets around the world, there are hundreds of isolated, “uncontacted” tribes that have never encountered humans from the modern world.

“They’re living completely self-sufficiently in their territories, and they’ve made it very clear they don’t want contact,” said Fiona Watson, research and advocacy director at Survival International, a UK-based group that supports the rights of indigenous and tribal people. “They do that in a number of ways. They may leave crossed arrows on their hunting trails. They may shoot arrows up at helicopters and airplanes that fly above them.”

Last week on the Lex Fridman Podcast, conservationist Paul Rosolie, author of the recently published “Junglekeeper: What it Takes to Change the World,” shared footage of a never-before-seen Amazonian tribe, the Mashco Piro.

Mashco Piro tribe members approached Paul Rosolie and his team in the Amazon. Mohsin Kazmi and Stephane Thomas via Storyful

Newly released video shows the tribe loaded up with bananas. Soon after, one of them shot a member of Rosolie’s team with a bow and arrow. Mohsin Kazmi and Stephane Thomas via Storyful

That initial contact went smoothly.

“We were on the other side of the river, and people came out of the forest … They came out naked with their penises wrapped up,” Rosolie told The Post. “They were very curious. I raised my hands to them, they raised their hands to me and they started singing. One of my friends [a member of Junglekeepers] gave them bananas. ”

Rosolie, founder of the Junglekeepers group, which works to preserve threatened habitats in the Peruvian Amazon, noted that it was their first ever contact with outsiders.

Paul Rosolie founded Junglekeepers and is the author of a new book. /Photography Credit: Mohsin Kazmi and Stephane Thomas

Uncontacted tribes are scattered around South America.

This map shows the general whereabouts of remote tribes in South East Asia.

But, things took a turn the next day. The friend who brought them bananas got shot with a bow and arrow. He barely survived.

“The arrow went through his scapula, came out near his belly button and almost killed him,” Rosolie said.

Violent encounters aside, Junglekeepers learned a lot of valuable information about the Mashco Piro. “They’re nomadic,” said Rosolie who emphasizes that his group was approached by the Mashco Piro and not the other way around. “They don’t have permanent dwellings. We know that they primarily eat monkeys and turtles. They don’t boil water because they don’t have pots. It’s possible they don’t know that water boils or freezes since they live in the tropics. And they probably don’t know there are places that don’t look like the jungle.”

Members of the Mashco Piro tribe on the beach, near where the nomadic group is living for the moment. Survival International

Brutal as an arrow through the scapula may be, you can argue it could have been worse for Rosolie’s friend.

In 2018, a missionary, by the name of John Chau, was killed while hoping to foist religion on the Sentinelese, a tribe on India’s North Sentinel Island.

“We reckon that they are the most isolated people on the planet,” said Watson. “They are on an island; it’s difficult to get there; and they patrol the area in [homemade] boats. It’s very clear that they don’t want contact.”

Chau pressed his luck, returning to the island a day after having an arrow shot at him that missed and landed in his bible. He was never heard from again.

Members of the Sentelese tribe do not react well to intruders from the outside world. ©Indian Coast Guard

While little is known about the Sentinelese, Watson said there are a few things we can note observationally. “When you look at photographs, there are no vegetables. The people look remarkably healthy, living off of fish from the sea and animals from the forest,” she said.

A bit more is known about the Kawahiva tribe in northwest Brazil. Watson figures that there are only about 50 people in the group. Judging from photos provided by the Brazilian government, which takes an interest in helping tribes there to protect their ways of life, she said, “They’re incredibly self-sufficient. They move around a lot and make temporary camps. They make fishing baskets, which serve as traps for catching fish. They make hammocks using Lianas [woody vines rooted in the soil]. As long as the forest is protected and standing, they can live sufficiently.”

Elsewhere in Brazil, when aerial photos were taken in relation to a gold mining operation, Watson got a look at how the reclusive Moxihatetema tribe live. “[They have] one big, enormous communal house,” she said. “There’s probably about 100 [members of the tribe].”

Aerial photos taken to investigate a mining operation also show the communal house occupied by members of the Moxihatetema tribe. Gilherme Gnipper

In the Gran Chaco Region, which stretches into both Paraguay and Bolivia, the Ayoreo tribe shows what happens when outsiders penetrate. Through the 1960s and ’80s, missionaries tried to convert the Ayoreo, according to Survival International, and carried disease with them.

The isolated people did not have antibodies to fight microbes brought in from the larger world and outbreaks caused several deaths.

Some of the Ayoreo were able to avoid the missionaries and remain uncontacted. Those that survived their contact with the missionaries have assimilated a bit with larger society.

“They’ll go into town and go to the capital [of Paraguay] to press for the rights of their uncontacted relatives,” Watson said, noting that the tribe is seeing their land being bulldozed for cattle grazing.

The Koroway people live in houses constructed above the trees. Uryadnikov Sergey – stock.adobe.com

The value of tribal land is also a problem for the Hongana Manyawa in Indonesia. The tribe has the misfortune of being on land where there is nickel below the earth. According to Watson, nickel mining “is penetrating deeper and deeper into their forest. People are getting pushed more and more off of their land.”

Meanwhile, the Korowai tribe-members, who live in treehouses above remote forest in Papua, New Guinea, have limited contact with much of the outside world. They have held fast to their traditions, which include unique healing methods and men and women living separately. That said, they have had some peaceful dealings with the New Guinea government, which tried to introduce a health program.

That’s not the case for the Yaifo, who are also in a remote part of Papua, New Guinea.

Members of the Ayoreo tribe live well by living off of the land. Survival International

Some 40 years ago, British writer and explorer Benedict Allen reported, through his agent, that he may have been the first westerner to encounter the Yaifo. He said they may have engaged in headhunting and kept the heads as trophies.

He personally underwent an initiation to the tribe, recounted in his book “Into the Crocodile’s Nest – A Journey Inside New Guinea.” He wrote that the ceremony was “as harsh as any on the planet.”

Watson stresses that the Yaifo, like the other tribes, have everything they need right where they reside in desired states of isolation.

“As long as the forest is protected and standing,” she said, “these people can live sufficiently and independently, completely off the land.”