‘Lost’ Amazon Tribe Is A Hoax!

Published on June 23rd, 2008

Some weeks ago there was a story about a ‘lost’ tribe that had been found in the Amazon jungle. Now it turns out that this tribe was known to be in that location for almost 100 years.

Secret of the ‘lost’ tribe that wasn’t – The Observer: Tribal guardian admits the Amazon Indians’ existence was already known, but he hoped the publicity would lift the threat of logging

…it has now emerged that, far from being unknown, the tribe’s existence has been noted since 1910 and the mission to photograph them was undertaken in order to prove that ‘uncontacted’ tribes still existed in an area endangered by the menace of the logging industry.

15 users responded in " ‘Lost’ Amazon Tribe Is A Hoax! "

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# 1 Hoamie said, on June 23rd, 2008 at 5:22 am

who cares if their existence was already known about- it is still quite special to see a tribe of primitive natives in the wild. like most other endangered species, they are becoming more and more rare to see and will soon disappear altogether.

# 2 kanthalion said, on June 23rd, 2008 at 5:31 am

I dunno, I still think that the pics look suspiciously ‘shopped.

# 3 Esteban said, on June 23rd, 2008 at 5:47 am

I figured it was a hoax when you published the original story.

# 4 Sean said, on June 23rd, 2008 at 6:16 am

Too bad a story has to be blown up and sensationalized to get our attention – It’s cool whether someone knew about them before or not. I didn’t know about them.

# 5 lou said, on June 23rd, 2008 at 6:18 am

I knew it was a load of crap.
I like it when the media gets burt on a story like this.
Just like when they all got caught cheerleading the Iraq war.

# 6 Mister Mustard said, on June 23rd, 2008 at 6:24 am

Doesn’t seem like a “hoax” to me. A “hoax” would be photoshopped photos or staged pics taken in a state park somewhere.

There’s an isolated tribe that has never been in contact with outside society. That’s interesting stuff. So a couple of people knew about it. Most of the world didn’t.

I call a hoax on the hoax call.

# 7 chuck said, on June 23rd, 2008 at 7:17 am

It all sounds like someone likes the “Prime Directive” a little too much here.

Ok, on the one hand, the people have a right to be left alone.

On the other hand, they’ve never been given a choice.

If you were living in a mud hut in a jungle and someone appeared and showed you a house, a bed with blankets, etc, maybe you’d like it better. Or maybe you’d prefer living in your mud hut without a care in the world. But the choice would be nice.

Aren’t we just treating these people like rats in a lab experiment ?

# 8 English Vibrato said, on June 23rd, 2008 at 7:45 am

Absolute insanity.

# 9 gmknobl said, on June 23rd, 2008 at 10:26 am

It was never a hoax that I heard. When I learned of it weeks ago, it was reported that people knew of their existence and only took to flying low enough to photo them to prove to Peru (or some other country) that these people existed so large corporations wouldn’t be free to come in and get these people killed and ruin their culture. It was said at that time that these tribes have many or may be entirely the result of survivors from first contact experiences with the outside world. Either violence was perpetrated against tribes to get uncontested access to the land and resources on it or disease ravaged tribes from meeting outsiders and the survivors fled inwards, deeper into the forest.

No hoax. Reality.

# 10 JPV said, on June 23rd, 2008 at 10:39 am

It was obviously a hoax. The shocking thing is how many people fell for it, including the media… errr, never mind.

# 11 tjmcgee said, on June 23rd, 2008 at 11:20 am

#9
I agree completely. I read the article in the same way you did. It’s almost as if someone misunderstood the original article and then was disappointed when their mistaken assumptions were challenged. I think what’s truly amazing about this is that people think the photos are faked or that it’s “obviously” a hoax. Why would you think this? That is an authentic photo of native people after all.

# 12 Shin said, on June 23rd, 2008 at 12:08 pm

It becomes a lab experiment if I dropped you in the middle of the rain forest and said live there. As it is..it’s no more a lab experiment watching your neighbors come and go. If you were living in a double wide and someone appeared and showed you a mansion with servants and unlimited funds, etc., maybe you’d like it better. Hmmm…the choice would be nice wouldn’t it…^_^

# 13 Mister Mustard said, on June 23rd, 2008 at 12:19 pm

#10 – JPV

>>it was obviously a hoax.

Well, looks like it turns out that it wasn’t a hoax at all, other than the claim that it was a secret, heretofor-unknown tribe.

The whole rest of the story seems to have been 100% correct.

# 14 Flavio said, on June 23rd, 2008 at 5:04 pm

Guys, this is what a terrible translation (or the eager to generate traffic) can do.

Brazil’s FUNAI officials NEVER said that the tribe was unknown, secret or anything else. They were just an uncontacted tribe.

Brazilian government actually said that they new the tribe’s localization, the number of components, etc because they used a remote sensing airplane before that found their position.

Funai only needed a more concrete proof to protect the tribe from contact with us (bad white people that don’t even know how to translate a press release from Portuguese to English).

Best,
Flavio
Brazil

# 15 ol,waterman said, on June 24th, 2008 at 12:25 am

“maybe you’d prefer living in your mud hut without a care in the world.”I really doubt that they do not have a care in the world.

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