Friday, May 30, 2008

New amazon tribe found

Deep in Brazil's jungles, one the world's last remaining uncontacted indigenous tribes has been spotted and photographed for the first time from the air. The pictures show tribesman, painted red head to toe, aiming longbows at the aircraft circling above.

The tribe was found in the far western Amazon jungle, near the Peruvian border, Brazil's department for Indian affairs said Thursday.

The region they were found in was an Ethno-Environmental Protected Area, said the government foundation known as Funai. Funai said it photographed "strong and healthy" warriors, six huts and an area of crops. It is not known which tribe the group belonged to.

"Four distinct isolated peoples exist in this region, whom we have accompanied for 20 years," Funai expert Jose Carlos Meirelles Junior said in a statement.

Funai does not make contact with indigenous people and prevents invasions of their lands, to ensure total autonomy for the tribes, the foundation said.

There are more than 100 uncontacted tribes worldwide, most of them in Brazil and Peru, said Survival International, a group that works to protect the human rights of tribal people.

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