The Right to Remain Forgotten: Encountering the Mashco-Piro Tribe

Within the last few days the Peruvian government has announced that it will try and attempt to contact the ‘uncontacted’ Mashco-Piro tribe in the Amazon jungles of the Madre de Dios region of Peru.  The recent emergence of the tribe indicates the seriousness of illegal activity in the region and the lack of government protocol to prevent its further destruction.  Within the last few years illegal mining and deforestation has completely changed the landscape forcing dangerous encounters between two worlds. It has long been believed that the Mashco-Piro tribe went into voluntary isolation from the western world after several massacres ensued by fortune seekers dating back to the 1890’s.  To this day they remain wary of the western world, however, recent exploits deeper into this region has forced them to seek out assistance with those nearby. The once freely nomadic tribe has now entered into deadly conflict with those encroaching in the region, forcing them to move closer into more populated areas along the Madre de Dios River.

In recent years the tribe has been seen calling for supplies such as machetes or pots. Videos have emerged of foolish missionaries and tourists being seen handing out items (such as clothing and soda) and making physical contact with the natives. Several tour companies have also been caught promising tourists the chance to see the Mashco-Piro perpetuating a highly unethical business need for human safaris. The primary danger with recent contact is that they do not have all the immunities that we take for granted for. Any little disease carried by westerners can easily impact their population.  These unwarranted interactions has forced the Peruvian government into a predicament, should they interfere and help or leave them be? 

Furthermore, in recent months the Mashco-Piro has invaded nearby Matsiguenka villagers, and in some instances, killed members of the village.  FENAMAD, a local native federation of tribes along the Madre de Dios River, has expressed concern over the government’s decision to reach out to the tribe, which they have already done themselves.  In the 1980’s 400 indigenous Peruvians died when coming in contact with employees of the Shell oil company.  A vast majority of the Madre de Dios region sits on top of what is known as Lot 76, which is land available to a Texas-based oil company for the purpose of oil exploitation. Previous to Lot 76 several gas and oil companies encroaching on the area forced the Mashco-Piro to get away from the areas and resulted in the further displacement of their communities.

The Madre de Dios region, in which the tribe is currently situated, is known as Manu National Park, which maintains one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the world. Due to the remoteness of Manu and the surrounding regions, there have been rumors of drug trafficking as well as other illegal activity taking place within the park. Some suspect the ongoing clashes between other tribes and people are in part due to frustrations taken out after skirmishes with these law-breakers. It comes as no surprise that the decision for the government to contact the Mashco-Piro comes as a result of previously unseen activity escalating in recent years. However, some anthropologists state that just because they are being seen more and more does not mean they want to be contacted, it just means that they are being forced more into these densely populated areas along the Madre de Dios River. Many fail to comprehend that the main reason why the Mashco-Piro still remains ‘uncontacted’ is because they chose to go into voluntary isolation. The violent and exploited history of the Mashco-Piro is what forced them to stay clear away from outsiders. Several anthropologists and non-profit organizations have urged against the decision to contact the Mashco-Piro and rather allow them rights to the land while preventing outsiders from encroaching on their specified territories. Having ignored previous pleas from activists and organizations for the last 25 years, the government is now being forced to act. With the whole world watching, the decision to open dialogue between government officials and the tribe is being heavily criticized as politically motivated and foolish.

The nonprofit organization, Survival International, who deals with human rights on behalf of tribes both integrated and uncontacted, has taken the following stance on the Peruvian government’s decision to contact:

Where members of a tribal people initiate contact, the country’s government has an obligation to react swiftly and decisively to try and reduce the very high risk of loss of life. There are two broad requirements:

1) Where not already in place due to contact being expected, expert medical teams and auxiliaries must travel to the area immediately after an appropriate quarantine period, and be trained and equipped to attend to the particular circumstances prevailing in early contact situations. They must remain in situ on a long-term basis but care must be taken not to encourage the tribal people to become dependent.

This requirement, though basic, is unlikely to be properly fulfilled.

2) The tribe’s land must be protected for its ownership and use, and its boundaries policed to prevent incursions by unauthorized people. The latter must also be kept away if tribespeople have voluntarily left the borders of their own land.

Contact must not be initiated by anyone other than the tribe in question, as nearly all contacts result in loss of life. (source: http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/10857)

In 2011, images of the Mashco-Piro were taken along the Madre de Dios River. The photos shows several members of the tribe around the bank of the river. Fernando Rivera Huanca, as seen below with the binoculars, was the man who would later take me to Pusharo inside of Manu National Park. It was these photographs of the Mashco-Piro that really pushed me into exploring the region for myself to see how the area has been dramatically impacted by the influx of people into the area. The photographs of the Mascho-Piro (the first images above and the one below) were reportedly taken by explorer Diego Cortijo, a member of the Spanish Geographical Society, who recently gave a TED talk claiming that he took the infamous photographs. However, while writing this article, professor Jean-Paul Van Belle, from Cape Town South Africa, came out to proclaim that he was the original photographer. I decided to investigate further and because I maintain digital copies of the original photographs that I obtained while in Peru, based on the timestamps (along with embedded digital camera information) and original uploaded dates on Jean-Paul Van’s Facebook page, I can without a doubt say that Jean-Paul Van was the photographer.

In the same photo below, Nicolas ‘Shaco’ Flores can be seen (in yellow shorts) and was believed to be one of the last people who was able to communicate with the Mashco-Piro. This photograph is considered to be one of the last known photographs of him before his death.

Shaco Flores, since the early 1980’s, had been trying to contact the Mashco-Piro and up until his death had been helping them out in any way he could. His wife, an indigenous Piro woman, taught him what little dialect she could for him to communicate with the tribe. Shaco would visit various encampments and leave them with various items, such as pots and machetes, in hopes of establishing communication from a distance. He also planted a small garden with yucca and other crops, which he would allow them to take as needed. This continued for years until at some point in time the Peruvian Ministry of Environment stepped in and prevented Shaco from further distributing items to the Mashco-Piro. This, according to sources, angered the Mashco-Piro who depended on Shaco for tools. And in late 2011, Shaco Flores and his family were ambushed by the Mashco-Piro in his home, where he was killed instantly when he was shot by an arrow through his heart.

The following interview I filmed while visiting the Port of Santa Cruz along the Madre de Dios River in the summer of 2013. The man was the son-in-law of Shaco, and was one of four or five people who survived the Mashco-Piro ambush. Being the only man left, he managed to dive into the river to avoid being shot by arrows, swam upriver and flagged down a passing boat, and went back to rescue his wife and children before they were to be taken by the Mashco-Piro. Due to the sensitive native of the subject, I’ve decided to blur out his face to hide his identity.

Anthropologist and ethnobotanist, Glenn H. Shepard, wrote the following regarding the loss of his friend Nicolas ‘Shaco’ Flores:

“Missionary groups, adventure tourists and intrepid natives have tried to approach the Mashco-Piro over the past twenty years, while illegal loggers may have attacked them. But none achieved the level of communication that Shaco had. By the time of his death in late 2011, Shaco maintained fairly regular verbal communication with the Mashco-Piro, albeit always at a distance. He left them pots, pans, knives and machetes as enticements. He planted a garden across the river from his house, on the fringes of their territory, and allowed them to gather and eat crops there. It was in this garden that a Mashco-Piro bowman ambushed him. I arrived in Shaco’s village only three weeks later and spoke with surviving family members and friends about what had happened. Some blame illegal loggers for stirring up the Mashco-Piro’s hostility, some blame Manu Park for not supporting Shaco’s efforts, others say a faction among the Mashco-Piro distrusted Shaco and chose to terminate the imminent prospect and hazard of contact. Some are quietly considering revenge.

Shaco’s death is a tragedy: he was a kind, courageous and knowledgeable man. He believed he was helping the Mashco-Piro. And yet in this tragic incident, the Mashco-Piro have once again expressed their adamant desire to be left alone. The situation presents a tremendous dilemma to the Peruvian government agency, INDEPA, charged with protecting isolated groups, since it provides justification for different groups—missionaries, loggers, local communities—with a vested interest in seeing the Mashco-Piro contacted and “civilized” once and for all. In the meantime, adventure-seeking tourists have approached dangerously close to the Mashco-Piro while film crews have brought contagious diseases to other isolated groups. New roads threaten to open up the region to more incursions by loggers, miners and colonists.

In the aftermath of Shaco’s death, INDEPA has redoubled its efforts and is seeking government and international support to expand its activities in collaboration with FENAMAD, the regional indigenous federation. Funding is urgently needed to identify and defend isolated groups’ territories, develop emergency action plans and educate local communities about the many dangers of forcing contact upon peoples who have chosen isolation as a form of self-defense.” (source: http://ethnoground.blogspot.com/2012/01/close-encounters-of-mashco-kind-fatal.html)

Alas, the Peruvian people begin to face the unavoidable cost of modernity. The further expansion into the unknown reaches of the Amazon in search of resources comes as a cost. Peru has seen a few hundred years of endless brutality and massacres towards indigenous populations who would refuse to be incorporated into what others deemed as ‘progressive.’ This ongoing cycle of slaughter and genocide is remnant of other historical lessons from around the world from the indigenous North Americans to the Australian aboriginals. Should we be doomed to repeat the past? The Madre de Dios region is now on the forefront of a large-scale gold rush remnant of the 1850’s California gold rush were countless indigenous people were massacred due to the influx of incoming settlers and prospectors in search of riches. I strongly believe that the Peruvian government is obligated to protect the Mashco-Piro’s rights to live freely and to be protected from incoming settlers. In due time the results be will be publicized as to whether or not the government acted accordingly. But for now, all I can do is remain hopeful that they do not do the Mashco-Piro any further harm by introducing disease or implement anything other than open dialogue from a safe distance to prevent further harm to their community and culture.