Astonishing new photos from Brazil’s Amazon rainforest give a glimpse of a prosperous, never-before-seen indigenous community living near the Bolivian border, according to a report.
The images, captured on automatic cameras, show the uncontacted Massaco people quietly thriving despite the pressures of loggers, miners and ranchers, the Guardian reported.
Dubbed the Massaco tribe — after the river that runs through their domain, though no one knows what they call themselves — the group appears to have a population of 200-300 people, the outlet reported.
The number is more than double what the population was in the early 1990s, according to the Brazilian National Indigenous Peoples Foundation (Funai).
Altair Algayer, a government agent with Funai who has spent more than three decades protecting the Massaco’s territory noted the resemblance of the tribe to the Sirionó people.
“But still, we can’t say who they are. There’s a lot that’s still a mystery,” Algayer, who placed the cameras in the rainforest to take images of the community in 2019 and 2024, told the outlet.
In response to mounting incursion threats from agribusiness, drug traffickers and more, the group has adapted by placing camouflaged wooden spikes designed to pierce the feet and tires of intruders, one of the new photos reveals.
They are also known to do most of their hunting with nearly ten-foot-long bows, according to the report.
The growth of the Massaco population signals a wider trend in the resilience of isolated tribes in the Amazon rainforest, though indigenous populations in the area have long been decimated by centuries of occupation and worsening environmental devastation, the outlet said.
Recent satellite images from 2023 show evidence of expanded longhouse settlements and cultivated plots, especially along Brazil’s borders with Peru and Venezuela, the science journal Nature reported.
Brazil’s 1987 “no-contact policy” has been touted as one reason for the population’s success. The policy, adopted by other countries such as Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia, prevents anyone from making direct contact with isolated tribes to prevent the spread of deadly contagious diseases, according to the report.
There are 61 confirmed groups living in the Amazon and Gran Chaco region, according to the International Working Group of Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact.
Despite their success, researchers say illegal land grabs and environmental devastation continue to threaten the region and programs, such as Funai, require more funding to protect isolated communities.
