News Archive

• 2011:
• Survival Int'l proposes ethics code after "Mark & Olly" scandal
• UNESCO recognizes Harakmbut prayer tradition of Peruvian Amazon as immaterial heritage in need of urgent protection
• Scott Wallace releases new book about uncontacted Indians
• Video illustrates dam impacts in the Amazon
• Beatriz Labate publishes volume on "Internationalization of Ayahuasca" 
• 2012:
•  Road plans threaten uncontacted indigenous groups in Peru
• Plans for new guard post in Manu Park, Peru to protect Mashco-Piro territory 
• Outrage over Australian TV show that brands Brazilian Indians "child murderers" 
•  John Terborgh reviews Scott Wallace's new book, "Unconquered" 
• Oil exploration threatens isolated groups in Peru 
• 5 deaths in a Peruvian native community attributed to gas leak from the Camisea pipeline  
• Gas exploration in Peru encroaches on territory of isolated indigenous groups  
• Lelis Rivera laments drastic changes in lower Urubamba due to Camisea gas development 
• Journalist Felipe Milanez's TED talk on violence and diversity in the Amazon
• "The Spirit Hunters" narrated by James Earl Jones now available on Culture Unplugged
• Conrad Feather criticizes imminent expansion of gas drilling into Nahua-Kugapakori indigenous reserve in Peru
• Brazilian court temporarily halts Belo Monte dam construction
• Nazi past of legendary Colombian anthropologist Reichel-Dolmatoff revealed
• No evidence for alleged Yanomami massacre found, but illegal gold mining continues unchecked in Venezuela
• Guarani Indians threatened with eviction given temporary legal reprieve
• Guarani-Kaiowa leaders thank Facebook users for helping win land dispute in court
• Gas drilling in "Fitcarrald" region threatens isolated indigenous groups in Peru
• 2013:
•  Tahltan people of British Columbia win ten-year battle to protect sacred rivers from oil drilling
• Guarani-Kaiowa of Brazil win land demarcation after prominent social media campaign
• FDA approves AIDS symptom drug isolated from "dragon's blood" tree, a traditional Amazonian medicine 
• Surviving snakes, malaria and armed robbery: National Geographic profile of archeologist Eduardo Neves
• Archeologist claims to have located royal tomb at Machu Picchu
• Leaked document exposes plans to exploit gas and oil in Manu Park, Peru
• Avá-Guarani Indians evicted by Paraguayan police return to community and are compensated for damages
• Napoleon Chagnon's autobiography revisits genocide accusations and revives debate about his legacy
• Prominent anthropologist Marshall Sahlins resigns from National Academy of Sciences over Napoleon Chagnon's recent induction
• Yukpa indigenous leader Sabino Romero assassinated over land and mining conflicts in Venezuela
• A Dutch consul in Brazil fined in dubious "biopiracy" charge over native-language herbal manual produced at request of Kaxinawa shaman
• Polynesian DNA identified from skulls of extinct Brazilian indigenous group
• Gunman Lindon-Jonson Silva convicted in Amazon activists' murders but rancher believed behind killings walks free
• Swastika grave in Brazil tells of bizarre 1935 Nazi expedition to Amazon seeking Himmler's "Atlantis civilization"
• Long-lost report documenting atrocities against Brazilian Indians in the 1960s resurfaces 
• Trying to save a native language of the Brazilian Amazon with only three speakers left 
• "Why do they want to destroy us?": Open letter from the Munduruku people of Brazil against Belo Monte dam
• After Munduruku expel dam study crew, Brazilian government suspends Tapajos research
• 38 tons of explosives to be detonated for gas exploration in isolated indigenous reserve in Peru
• Isolated Mashco-Piro of the Piedras river in Peru whistle warnings to nearby villagers
• 'Words of a Yanomami Shaman': Long-awaited book by Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert
• Indigenous soap opera in Yucatec Mayan language premieres on Mexican TV
• Isolated Mashco-Piro filmed in Peru requesting food and tools from nearby village
• "Any illness could kill them": Saul Puerta Pena comments on rare Mashco-Piro footage
• Brazilian senator, agribusiness advocate and 'Golden Chainsaw' award winner Kátia Abreu rants against the "100,000 NGOs" supporting indigenous rights
• Memory as resurrection: Ana Mariella Bacigulpo honors the life of a Mapuche shaman
• Religious freedom or ethnocide?: Felipe Milanez on missionary activity among Brazilian Indians
• Child pornography, possibly including images of indigenous children, found in police raid at New Tribes Mission headquarters in Manaus
• Ethnographic writing in the digital age: public lecture by George Marcus at MAST Astronomy Museum, Rio, Sept. 23
• Social and environmental impacts of BNDES investments in Peru
• Oil extraction soon to begin in remote indigenous territory along Peru-Ecuador border
• Goeldi Museum recognized among 65 most important tourist destinations in Brazil: 750,000 visitors since 2008
• New tapir species described in Brazilian Amazon: New to science, that is, but not to local indigenous people
• Mapuche indigenous leader found dead in reservoir she opposed
• 2014:
• Awaiting approval for gas drilling in indigenous reserve, PlusPetrol admits isolated native groups vulnerable to "massive deaths"
• New dolphin species discovered on Araguaia River in Brazilian Amazon: "How little we know"
• "Many isolated indigenous people have already died in the name of supposed progress": Peru approves controversial gas project
• Death of an indigenous leader in the Brazilian Amazon unleashes violence between Indians and residents of Humaitá
• Brazilian rancher vows to destroy uncontacted Ayoreo Indians' forest
• Belo Monte dam: 45% complete but only 15% of conditions regarding protection of indigenous territories have been fuflilled 
• Yanomami shaman and author Davi Kopenawa will visit U.S. in April to promote new book, "The Falling Sky"
• An app to stop deforestation?: The Surui Indians of the Brazilian Amazon go Android
• Lawsuit filed in Peru to stop controversial gas project in indigenous reserve adjacent to Manu National Park
• Peru plans to eliminate Environmental Impact Assessments for gas and oil seismic prospecting
• Brazilian scholar and specialist in indigenous uses of kampô (Phyllomedusa) frog venom wrongly detained by Federal Police in Acre
• Xipaia Indians of Belo Monte region inaugurate new collaborative exhibit at Goeldi Museum on recently rediscovered pre-WWII collections from former Soviet East Germany
• "Something serious must have happened. It is not normal for such a large group of uncontacted Indians to approach": Isolated indigenous group in Acre may be threatened by loggers
• Ashaninka Indians in Acre establish peaceful contact with isolated group after tense encounter
• Recently contacted Indians in Acre have already been infected with the flu
• Guarani village in Paraguay razed by Brazilian ranchers, community continues to fight for their land 
• Yanomami shaman and leader Davi Kopenawa receives death threats by gold miners expelled from Yanomami lands
• Dramatic video footage of first contact with isolated indigenous group in Acre
• Peruvian police destroy illegal gold mining operations in Madre de Dios
• Ka'apor Indians, tired of government inaction, take up fight against illegal loggers
• Tour operators in Peru offer 'human safaris' to glimpse isolated Mashco-Piro Indians in Manu Park
• Ashaninka indigenous leaders assassinated in Peru near Brazil border
• Local missionary on tour boat contacts and gives clothes to isolated Mashco-Piro Indians, Peruvian authorities still do nothing
• Gas company, missionaries and Peruvian government quietly plan to extinguish indigenous reserve and exploit gas
• Illegal gold mining operations on Kayapó indigenous lands shut down by Brazilian authorities
• Nahua people of Peru "furious" about expansion of PlusPetrol gas project into their territory
• Criminalizing the indigenous condition: Surui chief still in prison for protest actions but no charges filed
• "If FUNAI won't do it, we will": Threatened by dams and tired of waiting, the Munduruku demarcate their own lands
• Villagers flee after incursion by isolated Mascho-Piro: "Food shortages in their territory"
• "The precious stuff that has provoked sudden larceny and luxury here is not drugs, gems or precious metals": Maca fever in Peru
• 2015:
• Small group of isolated Awa-Guajá nomads seek out contact in indigenous reserve in Maranhão, Brazil
• "No scientific proof of global warming": Climate change denier named Brazil's new Science Minister
• Cocaine traffickers threaten isolated indigenous peoples of the Brazil-Peru border
• "Even if isolated Indians were right in front of them PetroPeru would deny it”: Imminent plans for oil exploration in Mashco-Piro territory
• Brazil bans oil exploration in isolated peoples' territory along Peru border: Why doesn't Peru?  
• Deforestation in Amazon grows for fifth month in a row
• “The price of oil is low, but the pain caused is extremely high”: Kichwa people of the Rio Tigre protest renewal of Peru's biggest oil concession
• Peruvian Culture Ministry invites specialists from Brazil to help develop emergency strategies for protecting Mashco-Piro and other isolated peoples 
• Mashco-Piro nomads kill a young Matsigenka man in Madre de Dios, Peru; FENAMAD warns Catholic missionaries may use incident to force contact
• "The cheapest and quickest way to conserve areas of high biodiversity is to respect tribal peoples’ rights": A new approach to conservation 
• Hunt Oil suspends controversial drilling project in Amarakaeri reserve in Peru 
• Tensions and risks increase as isolated indigenous groups emerge along Peru/Brazil border
• "No cultural chauvinism, no paternalism": BBC interview with Jonathan Hill on crisis of isolated Indians in Peru (starts @ 7 min.)
• Isolation or contact for the Mashco Piro of Peru? A moment of reflection and difficult questions
• Peruvian Culture Ministry announces special action plan for Mashco Piro in Madre de Dios as they emerge from isolation
• Fatal confrontation between environmentalist and trespassers ends in looting of a natural and archeological reserve in Brazil
• Martin Gusinde's photographs from Tierra del Fuego on exhibit in Arles
• 35 hostages including renowned American biologist John Terborgh released in Peru after being held in dispute over controversial road project supported by loggers
• “How do we receive them without killing them culturally or physically? We are learning"—J.C. Meirelles on the emergence of isolated peoples along the Peru-Brazil border
• Isolated indigenous people in the 21st century: an interview with Luis Felipe Torres
• Violence between Matis and isolated Korubo in Brazil reveals limitations of "leave them alone" policy
• Kayapó "video warriors" use digital technology to defend their territories and culture
• United Nations 'Equator Initiative' award recognizes Kayapo video warriors
• 2016:
• “Is our overwhelming desire to protect [isolated tribes] as they are the right way to continue?”: Evolving policies toward isolated groups of the Amazon
• Interview with José Carlos Meirelles on the trajectory of contact with the Mashco-Piro in Peru 
• Anthropologist Barbara Arisi slams Brazilian government for "farce" in policies towards isolated indigenous people
• Notes from the Ethnoground turned five in February: read the first post from Feb. 2011, Sacred Flutes Redux
• 2000 year old tapestry unearthed in Mongolia reveals a mushroom, possibly Psilocybe, as the enigmatic "Soma" of ancient Vedic texts
• "Half past a freckle, quarter to a mole": Gestural time communication in the northwest Amazon
• The Trail of the Serpent: Interactive map traces the explorations and botanical collections of Richard Schultes
• Historic land demarcations approved for Munduruku, Guarani and middle Rio Negro indigenous peoples of Brazil after years of struggle and delay
• Archeobotanical research on Lake Amanã in the Brazilian Amazon reveals deep human history
• Sensational Yucatan discovery by Canadian teenager debunked by erstwhile Mayanist wunderkind David Stuart
• National Geographic cover story reveals the human face of Manu Park, Peru
• Archeological artifacts excavated in the Manaus region now on display at CIGS Zoo, São Jorge, Manaus 
• "Sometimes I wonder what Vic would think of me now": Anthropologist Edith Turner dies at 95
•  "[They] might have begun a path toward inevitable assimilation": New Yorker article by Jon Lee Anderson about the Mashco-Piro of Peru
• Brazil denies license to Tapajos dam that would have flooded Munduruku territory
• Peruvian Congress shelves road project near Manu Park, Peru, that would have threatened isolated Mashco-Piro territory
• Prize-winning animated film celebrates the life and work of legendary anthropologist Curt Nimuendaju
• "The drug of choice for the age of kale": Ayahuasca goes mainstream, article by Ariel Levy in The New Yorker 
• "The world's cabinet of useful antibiotiocs is almost empty": Ethnobotanist Cassandra Quave's research featured in the New York Times
• Signs of isolated indigenous people found in zone of seismic blasts for oil and gas exploration in Bolivia
• One Nahua man dead, two wounded in encounter with isolated Mashco Piro in Kogapakori/Nahua Reserve, Peru
• FUNAI criticizes "invasive content" of sensational photos of an isolated indigenous people released by National Geographic
• Chronic mercury epidemic in Madre de Dios, Peru: "State of emergency"
• Isolated indigenous people encountered by Chinese oil company crews along Bolivia/Peru border  
• 2017:
• Ancient Amazonian peoples domesticated rice independently 4000 years ago
• Overall 2017 was not a good year for the environment, but some important battles were won
• Brazilian courts block presidential decree that would have opened large area to mining 
• Brazilian army destroys illegal gold miners' equipment in the territory of isolated indigenous people of the Javari river after a reported massacre
• Brazilian government confirms massacre of isolated "flecheiro" people of the Javari
• Forgotten slaughter: impacts of the 20th century fur trade on Amazonian fauna featured in the Guardian for World Wildlife Day
• Brazilian congress approves parliamentary inquiry criminalizing anthropologists involved in indigenous land demarcation
• After outpouring of local and international support, Brazilian president promises to restore Goeldi Museum budget and avoid closure 
• 2018:
• Gold mining approved in Venezuelan rainforest now effecting nearly 200 indigenous communities
• Genetic studies point to Salmonella as mysterious disease that killed millions of indigenous Mexicans in the 1500s
• “The arc of deforestation is a war zone”: Brazilian Amazon in the cross hairs amidst political and financial crisis
• Yet another gas pipeline leak—at least the 8th since 2004—threatens native communities in the Camisea region of Peru
• Brazilian Supreme Court upholds pro-business forestry law after environmentalist challenge: amnesty, new cutting permits for illegal deforesters
• Amazon archeologist Raoni Valle survives assassination attempt, activism for Munduruku people suspected as motive
• 2019:
• Brazil's rainforest warriors ready to battle Bolsonaro: Kayapó people fear new president plans to encroach on their land
• A Kayapó village prepares for battle: Podcast report by Andres Schipani of the Financial Times from the village of Aukre
• Blood gold in the Amazon: Jon Lee Anderson reports on the burgeoning gold rush afflicting indigenous lands in the Bolsonaro era, for New Yorker magazine
• Crisis in the Amazon: Brazilian scientists denounce Bolsonaro's policies towards indigenous people, letter to the editors of the New York Review of Books
• 2020
• Isolated tribes of the Amazon at risk from missionaries
• São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Brazil's largest indigenous town, seals itself off to protect from coronavirus
• Kayapo leaders block road access over fears of coronavirus contagion
• Kayapo Video Warriors: my talk for the School for Advanced Research, recorded March 26
• Indigenous association denounces American missionary's plans to contact isolated peoples in the Javari valley
• Kayapo village expels illegal gold miners after years of complicity
• Indigenous peoples of Brazil, impatient with government, take the lead in closing access to their communities during coronavirus pandemic
• 7 confirmed coronavirus cases among Brazilian Indians including a Yanomami teenager in critical condition
• New research shows squash and manioc under cultivation over 10,000 years ago in the "Llanos de Moxos" of Bolivia
• Instituto Socioambiental releases coronavirus information kit in the main indigenous languages of the upper Rio Negro
• Amidst coronavirus pandemic, illegal gold miners continue to expand their operations in Yanomami territory
• Yanomami teenager dies in Roraima after being hospitalized with confirmed coronavirus infection
• Evangelical missionaries have made unauthorized helicopter flights in Javari valley indigenous reserve near territory of isolated Indians
• Revenge of the bat people: Anthropologist Els Lagrou reflects on the relevance of indigenous disease concepts in the age of coronavirus
• Indigenous federation files lawsuit against Evangelical missionary group that has recently intensified activities in the Javari valley
• 43 cases of coronavirus in Puerto Maldonado region of Peruvian Amazon, proximity to isolated indigenous peoples upriver is worrisome
• Judge in Amazonas state demands expulsion of missionary organization from Javari valley, home to isolated peoples
• Another indigenous elder dies in Amazonas state from Coronavirus as number of cases among Indians triples in less than a week
• Indigenous author and health care worker Aldevan Baniwa dies of COVID-19 fighting on the front lines against the pandemic
• Indigenous peoples and coronavirus in Brazil: Goeldi Museum hosts online roundtable discussion on April 23, 2 PM Brasilia time
• Peruvian indigenous people feel "abandoned", demand a special coronavirus strategy for Amazonia
• 98 indigenous territories in Brazil classified as critically or intensely vulnerable to coronavirus
• Amazon states of Brazil shows highest per capita rates of coronavirus infection and death in the country
• Number of coronavirus cases among indigenous people of Brazil doubles over weekend to more than 90, death toll now 11
• Antonio Bolivar, Ocaina indigenous man who played leading role in Oscar-nominated film "Embrace of the Serpent", has died at age 75 of coronavirus
• Manu National Park releases indigenous language informational videos to promote pandemic awareness in native communities
• Coronavirus death rate in Amazon metropolis Manaus soars as deforestation continues to surge 
• FUNAI summarily removes field agent responsible for protection of isolated Piripikura people without consulting regional officer
• Indigenous anthropologists at Federal University of Amazonas reflect on the pandemic from the perspective of their cultures
• Brazil's Supreme Court suspends two measures the Bolsonaro administration has used to undermine indigenous lands rights
• In retaliation for Sebastião Salgado's international campaign to avert indigenous genocide, Brazil's Indian agency returns photos Salgado had donated
• Indigenous educator and rights activist Walter Benjamin Baniwa dies at 44 of coronavirus as suspected cases in Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira approach 100
• Dessana artist Feliciano Lana, whose paintings depict indigenous mythology, medicine and history, has died of coronavirus 
• As coronavirus arrives in towns near Xingu Indigenous Park in Brazil, indigenous leaders campaign to protect their people
• Kokama leader and founder of urban indigenous neighborhood in Manaus dies of coronavirus
• Citing coronavirus risk, Brazilian court rejects request to suspend environmental police action against illegal loggers in indigenous lands on Xingu River
• Coronavirus arrives in Yine native community in Peru adjacent to territory of isolated Mashco Piro
• Brazil's evangelical lobby adds a clause to text of a coronavirus prevention measure for indigenous peoples that would legalize missionary presence in isolated Indian territories
• Brazilian court annuls nomination of former missionary to head isolated Indian department citing risk to isolated indigenous peoples
• In leaked video Brazil's environment minister urges government use "opportunity" of press focus on Covid crisis to gut environmental laws
• Brazilian archeological society condemns president Bolsonaro's crude characterization of the country's archeological heritage as "petrified Indian turd"
• Judge blocks appointment of former missionary to head Brazil's Department of Isolated Indians
• The Yanomami people launch campaign to expel illegal gold miners and stem the spread of coronavirus
• Is celebrity attention helping or hurting Amazonian peoples? Reflections on Sebastião Salgado's "Eve of Genocide" campaign
• Online multimedia art exhibit invites us to rethink the impacts of climate change, highlighting indigenous perspectives
• Ysani Kalapalo, the "21st century Indian" social media star and former Bolsonaro supporter, has become disillusioned with the president's indigenous policies
• Legendary Mayan linguist, anthropologist and indigenous theater pioneer Bob Laughlin dies of coronavirus at 85
• Bolsonaro government censors health ministry Covid-19 website, wiping it clean of Brazilian mortality data
• Responding to Bolsonaro's censorship of health data, independent group creates Covid-19 statistics site for Brazil
• Brazilian court suspends measure that would facilitate occupation and sale of land parcels in indigenous reserves awaiting demarcation
• Support Covid-19 relief for the Shipibo people of Peru who have been severely hit by the pandemic
• Munduruku indigenous people's appeal for Covid-19 aid 
• Over 10,000 square kilometers of Amazon rainforest were cut down in Brazil in 2019
• Miners Out, Covid Out: an international campaign by the Yanomami people's association
• With twice the death rate from Coronavirus as the general population, indigenous people in Brazil face a health disaster
• US missionaries organizations intensify recruitment to evangelize recently contacted and isolated indigenous peoples of the Amazon amidst COVID pandemic
• 14 straight months of rising deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon
• Priceless fossil collections of the Federal University of Minas Gerais damaged in fire: yet another casualty of Brazil's chronic neglect of scientific institutions
• Bolsonaro administration seeks to make indigenous land demarcation norms stricter while opening demarcated indigenous lands to mining
• Pioneering indigenous researcher, activist and entrepreneur Paulinho Payakan dies of coronavirus  
• Higino Tonorio Tuyuka, indigenous education pioneer, rock art researcher and co-founder of FOIRN federation, dies of coronavirus
• Remembering Paulinho Bepkororoti Payakan by Janet Chernela
• Brazil is losing a generation of indigenous elders to coronavirus
• After decades of protests, Teddy Roosevelt statue in front of American Museum of Natural History to be removed
• "The Meaning of a Monument": 2019 American Museum film documents diverse voices of discontent over the Teddy Roosevelt statue 
• Barcelona opera house re-opens to an audience of thousands of plants
• Bekwyjká, wife of Kayapó leader Raoni, dies of stroke complications in village due to fears of coronavirus contagion in town hospital
• Yanomami people destroy gold miners' airplane that made emergency landing near their village
• Indigenous lawyer Eliesio Marubo speaks out against missionary activity in the Javari valley
• NY Times obituary for friend, mentor and Chiapas field host Robert Laughlin
• Archeologists reveal how ancient indigenous peoples of the Amazon fertilized the soil and enhanced biodiversity
• Robert Carneiro, legendary Amazon anthropologist and museum curator, passes away peacefully at 93 years young
• SALSA COVID-19 working group: links for updated information and donations to support coronavirus relief
• In the middle of the pandemic, Brazilian military wives at a remote base put makeup on Yanomami women without masks or social distancing
• Missionaries, coronavirus and the uncertain future of isolated indigenous peoples of the Amazon
• Coronavirus arrives in the Kogapakori-Nahua-Nanti reserve for isolated and recently contacted peoples of southern Peru
• New DNA study shows contact between Polynesians and Indigenous people of Colombia as early as A.D. 1150
• Isolated tribes of the Andaman islands once again threatened by new epidemic
• Chief Raoni returns home after extended hospitalization for gastric ulcers
• Brazilian Amazon had second highest Covid-19 death rates in the world
• Machine learning permits species level identifications of Amazonian palms from aerial photography
• Amidst worst Amazon fires in over a decade, Brazil's environmental agency has spent less than 20% of its 2020 fire prevention budget
• Historic indigenous leader Aritana Yawalapiti dies from coronavirus
• Indigenous health and self-determination in the age of coronavirus: review article in The Lancet