Loggers invade tribal home of Amazon Indian child 'burned alive'

Awá men travel down a road cut by loggers.
© Uirá Garcia

SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL, January 10, 2012 -- Loggers have invaded the Amazon home of uncontacted Awá Indians, one of whom has reportedly been ‘burned alive’.

Members of the Guajajara tribe, which also inhabits the area, have said that they came across the burned remains of an Awá child deep in the Amazon forest, following an attack by loggers, according to Brazilian NGO CIMI.

An investigation into the reported killing has uncovered disturbing ‘evidence of an attack’. The findings suggest loggers were operating 400 meters away from an uncontacted Awá camp where the burned remains of the child were allegedly found.

CIMI, The Order of Attorneys of Brazil and the Maranhão Human Rights Society, who jointly carried out the investigation, also found, ‘many indications that the Awá had been in the place of the reported incident.’ The Brazilian government’s Indian Affairs Department, FUNAI, is conducting its own investigation, and says the child’s death has not been confirmed.

The team discovered the remains of four fires, as well as clear evidence of the Awá’s search for honey, and bindings used to help them climb trees. CIMI believes around four families lived at the camp, 6 kilometers away from members of the Guajajara tribe, who reported the body’s discovery.

CIMI says loggers’ tractors drove over the Awá's camp, destroying everything. ‘From the signs we can say that it was a large vehicle.'
The Awá have recently suffered a series of brutal attacks, and loggers have threatened to kill them if they go into their forest. More than 30% of one of the Awá’s territories has already been destroyed.

Clovis Guajajara, who sometimes sees the Awá in the forest whilst hunting, has reportedly said that he has not seen them since the alleged attack, and he believes they have fled. He told the delegation he was, ‘very upset about the destruction’ and believed the Awá were scared away when they saw the loggers’ clearing.

Luis Carlos Guajajara told Survival, ‘There are uncontacted Awá in the area and the loggers are pressurising them. The loggers' presence is very dangerous. Indians in the area are scared.’

Awá man Takwarentxia and his pet monkey.
© Survival

At least 60 uncontacted Awá Indians are thought to live in this part of the north-eastern Brazilian Amazon – they are one of the last nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes in Brazil. The Awá rely on their forest to survive, but vast numbers of loggers are illegally invading their land, which now suffers one of the highest deforestation rates in the Amazon.

Survival International is lobbying the Brazilian government to evict the vast numbers of illegal loggers who risk wiping out one of the world’s last nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes.