Photos of Isolated Tribe As Illegal Logging Closes in on Their Home

The Brazilian government and the group Survival International have released photos of a so-called “uncontacted” tribe in the Brazilian Amazon that is threatened by the spread of illegal logging from nearby Peru. The pictures, taken by Brazil’s Indian Affairs Department, show young children in a clearing by thatched huts, with ample supplies of cassava, papaya, and banana from the tribe’s garden. Men in loincloths, their bodies painted red with seeds from a shrub, hold a bow and arrow and a spear. Survival International and the Brazilian government said that large-scale illegal logging, just across the border in a protected area in Peru, now threatens this small tribe. Brazilian officials also are concerned that the illegal logging could push isolated Indian tribes from Peru into Brazil, putting the two groups in conflict. Survival International and other organizations have for years been asking the Peruvian government to halt the logging, to no avail.