Even uncontacted tribes in Brazil may face coronavirus risk

Enlarge / Members of an uncontacted tribe in Acre, northwestern Brazil, 2009.

Ethnos360, an "aviation missionary" organization based in Arizona, has recently announced the use of a new helicopter to provide supplies and transport to its operations in remote western Brazil.

The organization, which aims to reach "the last tribe regardless of where that tribe might be," has previously operated in western Brazil with a bush plane. This has restricted its activities because of the permit requirements and expense of building and maintaining an airstrip. The helicopter, the organization writes, will "open the door to reach ten additional people groups living in extreme isolation." While questionable at any time, the current pandemic creates a context in which the decision to contact these groups is especially insensitive.

Leave us alone

This region of western Brazil is home to the highest number of uncontacted tribes in the world, according to nonprofit Survival International, which campaigns for the land rights of indigenous people as well as the right for uncontacted groups to remain so. Survival International points to uncontacted people's hostile behaviors, like pointing arrows at aircraft and leaving crossed spears in the forest, as evidence that these groups do not want to interact with outsiders.

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