World’s Largest Isolated Tribe Makes Rare Appearance After Loggers Move In

By: Alyssa Miller | Published: Aug 01, 2024

Rare new images have surfaced, showing members of one of the world’s most isolated Indigenous tribes, the Mashco Piro, emerging from a secluded area of the Peruvian Amazon.

This region has been increasingly encroached upon by loggers.

The Largest Uncontacted Tribe

Survival International, a nonprofit advocating for Indigenous rights, estimates that the Mashco Piro tribe consists of more than 750 individuals.

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Mashco Piro tribe on Madre de Dios

Source: Survival International

This makes them the largest uncontacted tribe globally.

Living In Seclusion

They reside between two natural reserves in Madre de Dios.

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Mashco Piro tribe on Madre de Dios

Source: Survival International

Typically, they avoid contact with the outside world.

Emerging From Isolation

However, in recent weeks, members of this reclusive tribe have been observed leaving the rainforest in search of food.

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Mashco Piro tribe on Madre de Dios

Source: Survival International

They are also trying to distance themselves from the advancing loggers, according to the Indigenous rights group Fenamad.

Photos Reveal Mashco Piro Tribe

Photos captured at the end of June show the Mashco Piro along a riverbank in the Madre de Dios region, near the Brazil border.

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Mashco Piro tribe on Madre de Dios

Source: Survival International

“These incredible images show that a large number of isolated Mashco Piro live alone a few kilometers from where the loggers are about to start their operations,” said Caroline Pearce, director of Survival International.

Call for Protection

Alfredo Vargas Pio, head of Fenamad, emphasized the significance of this sighting: “This is irrefutable evidence that many Mashco Piro live in this area, which the government has not only failed to protect but actually sold off to logging companies.”

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Fernamad staff standing together for a photo

Source: @MinCulturaPe/X

“The logging workers could bring in new diseases which would wipe out the Mashco Piro, and there’s also a risk of violence on either side, so it is very important the territorial rights of the Mashco Piro are recognized and protected in law.”

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Recent Sightings

Recently, over 50 Mashco Piro individuals appeared near the Yine village of Monte Salvado.

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Mashco Piro tribe in the water

Source: @Ecocentristas/X

Another group of 17 was seen near Puerto Nuevo, according to Survival International.

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Peruvian Government Reports Mashco Piro Sightings

On June 28, the Peruvian government reported sightings of the Mashco Piro on the Las Piedras river.

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Mashco Piro tribe in the water

Source: @Ecocentristas/X

This location is 90 miles from Puerto Maldonado, the capital of Madre de Dios.

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Cross-Border Sightings

The tribe has also been spotted across the Brazilian border, stated Rosa Padilha from the Brazilian Catholic bishops’ Indigenous Missionary Council in Acre.

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Mashco Piro tribe near the water

Source: @Jayysen_/X

“They flee from loggers on the Peruvian side.”

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Seasonal Behavior

“At this time of the year they appear on the beaches to take tracajá (Amazon turtle) eggs. That’s when we find their footprints on the sand.”

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A dense green forest next to a beach in Guam

Source: Philip Davis/Unsplash

“They leave behind a lot of turtle shells. They are a people with no peace, restless, because they are always on the run,” Padilha said.

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Logging Companies Expand Operations Near Mashco Piro Territory

Several logging companies hold timber concessions in the territory inhabited by the Mashco Piro.

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A bunch of brown logs stacked closely together

Source: Paula/Pexels

Canales Tahuamanu, one such company, has constructed over 120 miles of roads for logging trucks to extract timber.

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The Yine Chime In

The Yine tribe, though not isolated, speaks a language related to Mascho Piro. They have previously reported that the Mascho Piro “angrily denounced the presence of loggers on their land,” (via Survival International).

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Amazon Jungle in Lagunas District in Peru

Source: Wikimedia Commons

This is not the first time the Mascho Piro have had to flee their homes. In 2011 and 2013, the Indigenous community emerged from the forest in what many called an action for attention from the outside world.

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Proof in the Arrows

In 2022, the Mashco Piro struck two workers from the Canales Tahuamanu, a logging company with timber concessions in the territory inhabited by the indigenous community, with arrows.

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A child from the Pai Tavytera Indian tribe of Paraguay

Source: FrankOWeaver/Wikimedia Commons

“The Mashco Piro are desperate. Those arrows are the proof,” Julio Cusurichi, an Indigenous leader and an activist who has been recognized for his efforts protecting Indigenous peoples and the Amazon rainforest, told the Washington Post in May. “They would not have acted that way unless they were forced to.”

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UN Asks for Logging to Stop

Last year, the UN special rapporteur on Indigenous rights asked for Canales Tahuamanu to stop logging in the area, hoping to protect the homes and unspoken wishes of the Mascho Piro people.

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A forest fire on a sunny day

Source: Pixabay/Pexels

The company did not respond to any publications for a request on why they have continued logging in the area.

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Canales Tahuamanu Silent Despite Inquiry

Despite a request for comment, a representative from Canales Tahuamanu in Lima did not respond.

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A man is pictured cutting logs with a chainsaw

Source: Wikimedia

The company is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council and manages 130,000 acres of forests in Madre de Dios for cedar and mahogany extraction.

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A Petition to Stop Logging 

Survival International calls for the country’s Forest Stewardship Council to withdraw its certification of the company’s operations. More than 9,000 people have signed the online petition.

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Brown Tree Logs on Gray Dirt Road

Source: Edouard CHASSAIGNE/Pexels

“This is a humanitarian disaster in the making – it’s absolutely vital that the loggers are thrown out, and Mashco Piro’s territory is properly protected at last. The FSC must cancel its certification of Canales Tahuamanu immediately – failure to do so will make a mockery of the entire certification system,” the Survival International group writes.

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Another Secluded Tribe Gained Attention 

Another secluded tribe gained global public attention in 2018 after John Allen Chau, a 28-year-old missionary, illegally visited the North Sentinelese Island and attempted to convert the tribe to Christianity.

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n the wake of the 2004 tsunami this member of the Sentinelese tribe was photographed firing arrows at a helicopter.

Source: Indian Coastguard/Survival

Chau ultimately lost his life after the Sentinelese Tribe shot him with arrows. Knowing that this was the potential outcome of his journey, Chau wrote in his diary, “I think it’s worthwhile to declare Jesus to these people. Please do not be angry at them or at God if I get killed … Don’t retrieve my body.”

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Others Affected by Trespassing 

Chau was not the only person to have perished at the hands of the tribe. They reportedly ended the lives of two fishermen who were illegally angling in nearby waters in 2006.

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Fishermen on a small boat fishing along the coast

Source: Freepik

Despite these few interactions, researchers have generally understood the Sentinelese tribe’s actions through the rare documents that mention the tribe’s name.

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History Influences Present 

According to the Mirror, the Sentinelese are typically hostile to the outsider world due to their interactions with British colonial history, which is one of kidnapping, disease, and abuse.

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The British flag on a ship’s mast

Source: Boys in Bristol Photography/Pexels

Few documents have survived that detail colonizers’ experience with the tribe.

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The Role of Colonization

British Naval Officer Maurice Vidal Portman, who was responsible for documenting the pacification of tribes in the area for over two decades, first traveled to the previously unvisited North Sentinel Island in 1980.

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Maurice Vidal Portman (21 March 1860 in London, Ontario, Canada – 14 February 1935 in Axbridge, Somerset, UK)

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Portman’s role was to “civilize” communities in the area, and attempted to do so to the Sentinelese tribe by capturing six of the islanders and bringing them to Port Blair to be studied for “science.”

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Disease Spreads Through the Community

While researching the islanders, Portman documented that they quickly succumbed to diseases they had never encountered and rapidly became sick.

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The Sentinelese make narrow outrigger canoes.

Source: A. Justin

The man and the woman passed by, while the still-infected children returned to their community. The lack of immunity to contemporary illnesses created an endemic in the community.

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The Tribe Reacts to Outsiders

Portman tried to return to the island several times throughout his career, but the tribal community met him with hostility each time.

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A view of the Sentinelese people from the ocean

Source: Christian Caron/Creative Commons

“This expedition was not a success. We cannot be said to have done anything more than increase their general terror of, and hostility to, all comers,” Portman wrote, reflecting on one of his failed missions.

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Connect With the Tribe

Indian authorities attempted to contact the community since Portman, including starting a short tradition in the 1970s of leaving gifts on the beach for the tribe.

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North Sentinel Island, home of the Sentinelese, as seen from above

Source: Survival

Eventually, these attempts to befriend the tribe have been unsuccessful and often met with animosity. Since 1996, gift-dropping visits have stopped when officials decided it was best to leave the people of North Sentinel Island in peace.

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Leaving Secluded Tribes in Peace

Since then, human rights organizations like Survival International have campaigned for the rights of Indigenous tribal people, stating that past colonization efforts have sowed distrust in the communities of the outside world.

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Person Walking Between Green Forest Trees

Source: Luis del Rio/Pexels

On their website, Survival International writes: “Intergenerational trauma from this experience may account for the Sentinelese’s continued hostility and rejection of outsiders.”

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