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.
© 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 three surviving Akuntsu. When they die, the tribe will have been completely wiped out. © Fiona Watson/Survival Boa Sr was the last member of the Bo tribe. The Great Andamanese peoples, made up of the Bo and several other tribes, were decimated after contact when the British colonized the Andaman islands. © Alok Das The house and garden where the ‘last of his tribe’ grows manioc and other vegetables, Brazil. © J. Pessoa Baita, a Piripkura man, sleeping in the forest, Brazil. The Piripkura numbered around 20 people when FUNAI first contacted them in the late 1980s – many had been massacred. After contact they returned to the forest. Baita’s sister, Rita, now lives outside the forest, and Baita and his nephew Tamandua have sporadic contact at a FUNAI post. No-one knows how many more Piripkura are still living in their territory, which is being invaded. © 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.
© 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.
© 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.
From multi-million dollar projects to smaller scale illegal operations, mining pollutes and opens up Indigenous territories. The Greater Carajás project including a mine (pictured), a railway and a dam, exposed the north-eastern Amazon to unprecedented invasions and violence, and killed many uncontacted Awá. © Peter Frey/Survival Hydroelectric dams, often presented as “green energy” alternatives, are destroying vast swathes of Indigenous land. A series of internationally-funded mega-dams in the Brazilian Amazon – such as Belo Monte, pictured – threatens the existence of several groups of uncontacted people. © Ministry of Mines and Energy, Brazil Missionaries attempting to force contact on uncontacted tribes could end up wiping them out. Here, a missionary smiles as he takes a selfie with an uncontacted child who has just emerged from the forest. This simple act could kill, as he is likely to be carrying germs of common Western diseases to which the tribespeople have no resistance. © FENAMAD Deforestation kills uncontacted people by destroying their land. They depend on it totally for their survival. Paraguay’s Chaco forest – the last refuge of the uncontacted Ayoreo – is being devastated by one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world. © Rodrigo Baleia Uncontacted tribes’ land is being stolen and used for cattle ranching. Cattle are grazing on the land of the uncontacted Kawahiva tribe while the people face extinction and are living on the run, struggling to survive. © Survival Huge tracts of land in Amazonia – once home to hundreds of uncontacted tribes – have been opened up for large-scale plantations. In Brazil, this is encouraged by Congress’s anti-Indigenous rural lobby group. © Rodrigo Baleia South-east Peru is home to various uncontacted Nahua, Nanti, Matsigenka and Mashco-Piro groups. The Camisea gas pipeline construction slashes its way through the heart of uncontacted tribes’ forest in Peru. Oil and gas projects like this have killed countless uncontacted tribes in recent history and are a clear violation of national and international law. © A. Goldstein/Survival Illegal poaching in the waters around their island threatens the survival of India’s Sentinelese tribe. If their resources are too depleted, the consequences could be catastrophic. © A. Justin
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.