This was seen by other tribe members as a sick warning to the Awa people who remained in the protected territory.Īccording to a study by the Indigenous Missionary Council, over 450 Indigenous people were slain between 20.Īs a result, the fate of the world's most vulnerable tribe continues to cruelly unfold.

In 2011, illegal loggers burned to death an 8-year-old Awa girl who had wandered away from her community in a protected region in the state of Maranhao. After loggers created illegal villages and ran cattle ranches, Brazilian judge Carlos do Vale Madeira called the problem (per Daily Star) 'a real genocide.' Awa is also said to have been pursued by hired shooters, known as pistoleros.ĭespite the efforts of organizations such as the Survival campaign and the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) to assist the Awa, the group remains vulnerable due to illicit logging, malaria, and tribal clashes with the Ka'apor tribe. The invasion and destruction of their territory have resulted in the loss of life.

'If we have no forest, we can't feed our children and we will die,' the tribe told her, per The Guardian. Logging has resulted in the loss of rainforest trees.įiona Watson, Survival's research director, said in 2012, that the tribe was on the brink of extinction because they are invaded by loggers, settlers and cattle ranchers, and they only depend on the forest. Illegal logging has placed the Awa people in hazardous terrain for a long time. He has cut funds for the country's environmental police and reversed safeguards, arguing that the Awá tribe 'doesn't want to live like cavemen.'ĪLSO READ: Two New Species of Endangered Glass Frogs With See-Through Bodies Discovered in Active Mining Sites in Ecuador Despite the president's commitment on Earth Day to eradicate deforestation by 2030, it does not appear that this will happen.Īccording to BBC News, Survival International considers the Awá tribe to be the 'most threatened tribe on earth' and they are becoming increasingly accustomed to hearing chainsaws wreaking havoc near their village.īrazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, per Green Matters, feels that the forest should be cultivated to help farmers and loggers. Rare video of uncontacted Awa Amazon tribe emerges in Brazil /m290rizxYC- Reuters JWhy Awá Tribe Is Threatened?ĭeforestation has been harming Brazil's Amazon jungle for years, and in 2020, it reached an all-time high in 12 years. Many of the members have jungle creatures as pets, such as little monkeys. The Awá tribe is highly close to nature since they live in the woods. The tribe is no stranger to handiwork, as they make their own tools out of branches and rocks, torches out of tree resin, and hammocks out of palm tree fibers. Members of the group live with their extended families and go on gathering and hunting trips together, leaving their group base and living in makeshift shelters made of palm leaves for several weeks. To this day, roughly 100 members of the tribe live in secluded areas of the bush to keep themselves hidden from strangers.Ĭhildren of the tribe are taught to hunt with handcrafted bows and arrows from an early age. When European conquerors began penetrating the Latin American country in the early nineteenth century, the tribe became nomadic to remain concealed from them. When the monkey returns to the forest, Awa can still recognize it because, for them, it is hanima - a part of the family. Although they eat monkeys, a baby monkey integrated into an Awa family and breastfed will never be slaughtered for a meal. Their pets include coatis, wild pigs, king vultures and monkeys. They are expert hunters but great pet keepers. What is Awá TribeĪll That's Interesting mentioned that the Awá tribe, also known as the Guajá or Awá-Guajá, is a group of hunter-gatherers who live in Brazil's Amazon rainforest. TOPSHOT - Aerial view of deforestation in the Menkragnoti Indigenous Territory in Altamira, Para state, Brazil, in the Amazon basin, on August 28, 2019.

Awa tribe fact file