There are more than one hundred uncontacted tribes around the world
Uncontacted tribes are Indigenous peoples who avoid all contact with outsiders. They’re not backward and primitive relics of a remote past, they are our contemporaries and a vitally important part of humankind’s diversity. Where their rights are respected, they continue to thrive. But their survival is under threat from violence, disease and racism.
Guardians
The best way to prevent the destruction of the Amazon rainforest is to campaign for the land rights of uncontacted tribes.
Tanaru Indigenous Territory, Brazil (home to the man known as "The last of his tribe" or "The man of the hole"© Survival International
Act now for uncontacted tribes
Genocide
Whole populations of uncontacted tribes are being wiped out by genocidal violence from outsiders who steal their land and resources, and by diseases like flu and measles to which they have no resistance.
Uncontacted people made contact with a settled Ashaninka community near the Brazil-Peru border in June 2014. © FUNAI/Survival There are now just five surviving Akuntsu. When they die, the tribe will become extinct. © Fiona Watson/Survival Boa Sr was the last member of the Bo tribe. © Alok Das The house and garden where the ‘last of his tribe’ grows manioc and other vegetables, Brazil. © J. Pessoa Tucan, a Piripkura man, sleeping in the forest, Brazil. The Piripkura numbered around 20 people when FUNAI first contacted them in the late 1980s. After contact they returned to the forest. Since then, contact has been re-established with three members of the tribe, but no one knows if there are any more survivors. © Jair Candor/FUNAI/Survival
Diversity
The uncontacted Awá in the Brazilian Amazon use the resin of the maçaranduba tree to make fire to light houses and to hunt at night. They are able to build a house in just a few hours – from lianas, leaves and tree trunks.
Uncontacted Indigenous people in Brazil seen from the air during a Brazilian government expedition in 2010. Men painted with red and black vegetable dye watch the Brazilian government plane.© G. Miranda/FUNAI/Survival
The uncontacted Kawahiva build intricate ladders up trees to collect honey from bees’ nests, and make traps to catch fish in the streams by their camps.
One uncontacted man known as “the Last of his Tribe“ would dig deep pits in which he'd place sharp spikes to capture game animals. He was found dead in August 2022 , and his death means the genocide of his people is complete.
Knowledge
They have an acute understanding of their natural world through botanical and zoological wisdom, and demonstrate unique solutions to sustainable living. Many of the drugs used in Western medicine originate with tribal people, and have saved millions of lives. Uncontacted tribes are likely to hold the key to many more secrets of their forest.
Uncontacted Indigenous settlement, Javari Valley, Brazil, 2011.© Peetsa/FUNAI/CGIIRC Archive
Join the movement for uncontacted tribes
Land theft and forced contact
We oppose attempts by outsiders to contact uncontacted tribes. It’s always fatal, and initiating contact must be their choice alone. Those who enter uncontacted tribes’ territories deny them that choice.
The Carajás mine and railway signalled the start of migration to the Awá territories. © Peter Frey/Survival © An Adventist missionary poses for a “selfie” with a recently-contacted Mashco-Piro boy. © FENAMAD/Survival Trees’ remains are shown in an Amazon burning area on Mato Grosso estate, Brazil, 2008. During the drought season, farmers start fires in the Amazon region. The trees that resist are gathered to be burned the next year. With the arrival of the rains, soil is prepared for the planting. © Rodrigo Baleia/Survival Stolen Guarani lands continue to be converted into vast, dry networks of cattle ranches and sugar cane plantations, devastating the Guarani’s ancestral homelands which once provided their livelihood. © Fiona Watson/Survival After deforestation, tractors gather logs where soy crops will be planted in the north on Mato Grosso estate, Brazil, 2008. During the drought season, farmers start fires in the Amazon region. The trees that resist are burned the next year. With the arrival of the rains, soil is prepared for planting. © Rodrigo Baleia/Survival Camisea pipeline construction slashes its way through the forest in Peru © A. Goldstein/Survival Sentinelese, Andaman Islands, India © A. Justin, An. S.I.
All uncontacted tribal peoples face catastrophe unless their land is protected. They’re resisting the invasion and destruction of their lands, and we're doing everything we can to secure their land for them, to ensure invaders are kept out, and to give them the chance to determine their own futures.
Explore critically urgent cases where uncontacted tribes are at imminent risk of destruction:
1. Ayoreo, Paraguay: The last uncontacted tribe in South America outside the Amazon is holding out in an ever-shrinking island of forest, as bulldozers clearing land for cattle ranchers rapidly close in on them.
2. Uncontacted tribes, Peru: After years of delay, the Peruvian government has still not signed into law several indigenous territories which uncontacted and recently-contacted tribes depend on for their survival.
3. Uncontacted Hongana Manyawa, Indonesia: Rainforest inhabited by hundreds of uncontacted Hongana Manyawa people has been targeted for highly destructive mining, which will devastate the forest – and the people. Hugely powerful companies are involved. The Hongana Manyawa desperately need your support if they’re to survive.
4. Shompen, India: The Shompen are one of the most isolated tribes on Earth. They're now at risk of being totally wiped out by a “mega-development” plan to transform their small island home into the “Hong Kong of India.”
5. Kawahiva, Brazil: In the Brazilian Amazon, the uncontacted Kawahiva Indigenous people are fighting for their survival. These are the Last of the Kawahiva, and their genocide will be complete unless their land is protected.
