Amazing Images Display an Uncontacted Amazonian Tribe Living Dangerously Close to Illegal Miners

For the first time, an uncontacted tribe was captured on camera from the air in a section of the Brazilian Amazon that is currently being overrun by unauthorized gold miners. If they are not protected from outsiders encroaching on their land, this tribe, which has preserved its ancient way of life for thousands of years, may soon go extinct.

The images, which were captured from a government aircraft looking for illegal miners, depict a community building known as a “yano” in area that belongs to the native Yanomami people. This land, which has been formally protected since 1992, is considered to be home to about 22,000 people divided among a number of tribes, at least three of whom have not been in contact with Westerners, according to Survival International.

A distinct family is housed in each portion of the yano, which also has room for them to store and prepare food as well as hang hammocks. There are thought to be about 100 people living in the building altogether.

However, these long-term dwellers might not remain there for very long given that an estimated 5,000 miners are said to be hiding nearby. History demonstrates that when native communities and foreigners coexist, tribes frequently succumb to a combination of terrible diseases from which they are immune and ruthless violence.

According to a report published earlier this year, illegal mining operations in the nearby rainforest have poisoned about 90% of Brazil’s indigenous Amazonian population with mercury.

Governments are under pressure to enhance their efforts to protect the future of indigenous Amazonians as the number of unwanted trespassers on these ostensibly protected lands rises and the barrier between remote tribes and the outside world starts to close.

Stephen Corry, the director of Survival International, claims that “these remarkable photographs provide further evidence of the presence of still more uncontacted tribes.” They are not primitive societies; rather, they are sophisticated modern communities whose rights must be upheld.

Corry warns governments in the area that “all uncontacted indigenous peoples face calamity unless their territory is safeguarded,” but he also has a strong message for them.