Inside the Amazon’s ‘world’s most endangered tribe’ who bathes with turtles and and eats armadillos

Five Awá families from Posto Awá, an outpost created by the Brazilian government’s indigenous affairs agency, set out on an overnight excursion into the forest. Awá like them who live in settled communities and miss the forest—especially older members who grew up there—make these forays to reconnect with their traditional ways. It wasn’t until 1987 that Brazil began its current no-contact policy for isolated indigenous groups.Credit: Photographs by Charlie Hamilton James / National Geographic

Incredible photos give a rare look into the life of the “world’s most endangered tribe” who still hunt with bows and arrows to survive in their shrinking forest.

There are only around 80 of the nomadic Awá, one of the last "uncontacted" tribes of the Amazon, in a reserve in the Maranhão forest in Brazil.

They live as they have for centuries, using bows and arrows to hunt armadillos and gathering wild honey and babassu nuts in the dense primal forest.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM THE SUN

The images are from the October 2018 issue of National Geographic Magazine.

One image shows an Awá hunter with a small deer on his back while holding his bow and arrows with a hunting dog following behind.

Another shows a group of women and a baby bathing in a river in the pristine rainforest.

Like the forest, the Awás' very existence is threatened by illegal loggers, miners and drug traffickers invading their home.

At Posto Awá, villagers enjoy a morning bath. The red- and yellow footed tortoises they’re holding will probably eventually be eaten.

The isolated group rely on the forest and its sources of water for survival, but are forced to move almost constantly because of the threat from dangerous outsiders.

They live on a reserve that is protected by law, but it has not stopped bandits.

With 75 percent of Maranhão’s original forest cover lost, the most valuable timber left is in the protected Arariboia Indigenous Land.

Timber extraction is illegal in this area, which opens the door to a criminal enterprise.

Logging trucks drive through back roads that are unpatrolled by police and deliver their payloads to secret sawmills.

((Credit: Photographs by Charlie Hamilton James / National Geographic))

The Awá live in a state of “near-constant” flight from the chainsaws and wildfires.

The Guajajara tribe also resides in the same area, but have made contact with isolated society over the decades.

Tainaky Tenetehar, of the Guajajara tribe, told National Geographic how he and his group of Forest Guardians protect the “isolated ones” from fleeing.

He added: “Who’s going to fight for the isolated ones, if not us?”

“The loggers are entering all around the perimeter of the indigenous land.

An Awá hunter returns home with a small brocket deer. Sometimes hunters see signs of the isolados, their isolated brethren. As many as a hundred Awá still live as nomads in the Amazon forest, despite increasing pressure from illegal loggers and settlers.

“Their intention is to reach the center—where the isolados are. They have no choice but to flee when the loggers come.”

The Forest Guardians set logging trucks on fire, seize weapons and chain saws to keep the criminals at bay.

The Awá's existence has sparked legal protection for nearly 4,800 square miles of woodlands, but it has not stopped the illegal logging.

This story originally appeared in The Sun.