Funai
One of the never-before-seen images of the isolated people of Massaco, taken on February 17, 2024, as they collected machetes and axes left behind by Funai agents
Automatic cameras installed in the Brazilian rainforest captured images of the Massaco people — an uncontacted community who are thriving in the Amazon despite environmental threats, and whose real name is unknown.
Remarkable images captured by automatic cameras installed in the Brazilian rainforest by the National Indian Foundation reveal an isolated community that appears to be thriving despite pressure from farmers and illegal invasion of the Amazon.
The images, of a group of men, offer the outside world its first glimpse of the community – and provide further evidence that the population is growing.
The group is known as Massaconamed after the river that runs through its lands, but no one knows what they are calledwhile their language, social fabric and beliefs remain a mystery.
According to data from Funai, which has worked for decades to protect the territory, despite relentless pressure from agribusiness, loggers, miners and drug traffickers, the Massaco population at least doubled since the 1990s, for around 200 to 250 people.
Funai placed the cameras in a place where it periodically leaves metal utensils, a practice used to dissuade uncontacted people from venturing into farms or logging camps to get tools — as has happened in the past with tragic consequences, notes the .
Photos of Massaco settlements They had already been captured previously during Funai expeditions in areas that, according to satellite images, were abandoned.
Years of indirect observation made the Massacos known for hunt with three-meter bows in length and by moving their villages from season to season within the forest.
The Massaco try to discourage outsiders by planting thousands of spikes that puncture feet and tires of trucks and other vehicles that cross the region.
“Now, with these very detailed photos, it is possible to see the similarity of the Massaco with the povo Sirionowho lives on the opposite bank of the Guaporé River, in Bolivia”, says Altair Algayera Funai ranger who has protected the Massaco territory for more than three decades. “But still We can’t tell who they are. There are many things that are still a mystery.”
“We’ve seen more new thatched huts recently, so it wouldn’t surprise me if there were 300 individuals“, says Algayer, quoted by .
No contact policy
Despite the demographic catastrophe of indigenous populations caused by centuries of non-indigenous occupation and worsening environmental devastation, population growth among isolated peoples is a trend throughout the Amazon.
In 2023, a published in Nature revealed data on population growth along Brazil’s borders with Peru and Venezuela. Satellite images showed larger cultivated plots and more settlements.
Experts also found evidence in the forest of growth similar among nomadic communities who do not plant crops or build large structures visible from space.
One of these groups is the Kawahiva people of Rio Pardowhich has been monitored by Funai. “Today, we estimate there are 35 to 40 people. When we started working here, in 1999, there were around 20”, says Jair Candor, a Funai researcher responsible for observing the Kawahiva.
The reversal of this global trend of cultural loss and disappearance of languages was the result of innovative public policies to do not initiate contact with these people, started in Brazil in 1987.
Decades of contacts with these peoplepromoted by the Brazilian government, had resulted in the death of more than 90% of people contactedin most cases due to illness. Since then, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia have adopted versions of this non-contact approach.
According to a project by the International Working Group on Indigenous Peoples on Isolation and Initial Contact, there are 61 people confirmed living in the Amazon and Gran Chaco region, and 128 not yet verified by the authorities.
