Brazil dispatches expedition to prevent bloody clashes between isolated Amazon tribes
Concern over cudgel-wielding Korubo encroaching on territory of arrow-brandishing Matis
Brasilia — Brazilian anthropologists are looking for members of an Amazon tribe that has had little or no contact with the outside world so as to steer them clear of a rival indigenous group and avoid a bloody clash of cudgels against arrows. Funai, Brazil’s indigenous affairs agency, said the expedition set off into the Javari Valley reservation in the far west of Brazil, a region larger than Austria and home to the world’s highest concentration of uncontacted tribes. The Korubo tribe has become dispersed and separated in the forest, apparently due to the growing encroachment of fishermen poaching on the reservation. Faced with depleted resources and loss of political clout, Funai has struggled to prevent such activity. The most isolated group has now come within 20km of the Matis arrow people, with whom they had a fatal battle in 2014, said Funai expedition leader Bruno Pereira. Funai’s aim is to protect the group by encouraging them to reunite and stay with other less isolated Ko...
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