Newly Released Video Shows Isolated Indigenous Tribe Living In Brazil's Jungle

close

Video

New Video Shows An Indigenous Tribe Living In Brazil

Newly released images of indigenous tribe thought to have had very little contact with the outside world.

RIO DE JANEIRO – New footage released Wednesday shows an isolated Indian tribe in Brazil's Amazon jungle that is thought to have had very little contact with the outside world.

The images show several members of the Kawahiva tribe walking through dense foliage.

Naked men carry bows and arrows, and a woman totes a child on her back.

The woman runs away after noticing the camera, and one man briefly doubles back to investigate.

The Kawahiva, a nomadic tribe, are known for having very little contact with other indigenous tribes, and even less contact with non-indigenous people.

"Assassinations in the last decades, field exploration, slave work, deforestation, illegal logging, so there is evidence that suggest that this group has suffered from all sorts of violence," said Carlos Travassos, head coordinator for Isolated and Recently Contacted Indigenous groups at government body FUNAI.

The video was shot in 2011 by the government's agency overseeing indigenous matters.

"When they are isolated we also have to protect them from contact because we know contact can cause damage and even extinction," said agency president Maria Augusta Assirati.

Descendants of the Tupi tribe, loggers first reported the existence of the Kawahiva in 1999 but it is still unknown how many of them exist.

A 411,848-acre reservation was created last year in the western Mato Grosso state, but they still face grave threats from loggers and farmers.

Based on reporting by The Associated Press.

Follow us on twitter.com/foxnewslatino
Like us at facebook.com/foxnewslatino