Rare documentation: an isolated and unknown wild tribe was discovered in the Amazon forests in Brazil/edited by: Shanir Dabush
Damien Lewis, author, war zone writer and filmmaker, participated in Dodge Woodwell's podcast in which he shared the incredible experience he had in an isolated tribe living in the Amazon forests of Brazil.
"Something went wrong in my relationship with a young girl I met," he told the background to the journey, "I had to move away to a place where she wouldn't find me - so I signed up for a Brazilian government expedition whose goal is to find isolated tribes in the Amazon."
Brazil's policy for years is to try to integrate these tribes into modern world life, unless they are really dangerous.
"I joined a six-month expedition," said Damien, "the last contact with the tribe I went to was made by some illegal gold miners who infiltrated the tribe's territory. They were shot to death with poison arrows. The arrows were massive... about six or seven meters long With serrated bamboo heads coated with kurara".
By mapping the tribes' territories, Brazilian authorities hope to protect them from loggers who might otherwise force them to leave the lands they lived on long before the first European explorers arrived in the region in the 1500s.
"Illegal gold miners who trespassed on the tribe's territory were shot to death with poison darts"/Official website, Survival International
Damien says they had some idea where to look for this elusive tribe, as one of the miners survived their attack and was interviewed while in the hospital.
While they were searching, Damian and his group slept in hammocks hanging from trees in the rainforest, and one night he had a terrible nightmare.
"One of the guides, his name was Furia, and I got on really well with him. I had a nightmare one night, and he approached me in the morning and said, 'Just come with me.'
"Try to imagine this: some guy sits you down, some tribal man in the Amazon and says 'this is what you dreamed about' and then he tells you the exact dream in great detail. At the end I asked 'how the hell did you do that?'
And he said, 'We just know,' and then he also said, 'This is what you should do about it...'".
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They knew they were getting close to the tribe they wanted to reach when they found traps laid for them.
He continued: "We would find little paths like this through the rainforest with sort of pongee sticks - sharpened spikes placed on the path you're walking on - that basically say 'don't come any closer.'
Experts believe that there are about 300,000 natives who lead a Stone Age lifestyle in the Amazon rainforest, where they are grouped in about 450 different tribes, some with tens of thousands of members and others with only a few individuals.
More on the same topic:
Amazon
Brazil
Tribes