Hit by disease, deforestation and war, Colombia's last nomadic tribe faces extinction (fwd)

[Phil CashCash]

Hit by disease, deforestation and war, Colombia's last nomadic tribe
faces extinction

2003/10/29
BARRANCON, Colombia, AP
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/detail.asp?onNews=1&GRP=A&id=21099

For thousands of years, the Nukak-Maku Indians roamed the jungles of
southeast Colombia, hunting game with blow guns and gathering berries,
as oblivious to the modern world as it was to them.

Then one day in 1988, the two worlds collided when a group of Nukak men
ventured into a town carved out of the jungle. Townspeople stared in
disbelief at the naked Nukak as the Indians _ astonished, too _ stared
back.

That first encounter was peaceful, with the Nukak men feeling so
trusting that they brought out their women and children who had been
waiting in the bush. But the aftershocks of that meeting are now
devastating the Nukak.

Cut down by diseases brought by settlers, lured by the conveniences of
the modern world and caught in the crossfire of Colombia's civil war,
the tribe is being driven along a path to extinction that more than 100
other Indian tribes across the Amazon region have walked before.

What is happening to the Nukak is especially worrisome; it is Colombia's
last nomadic tribe.

At least 1,200 Nukak roamed the jungles in groups of about 30 when that
first hesitant contact was made in the town of Calamar, according to
missionaries' estimates. Just 15 years later, their number has plunged
to about 380, the Health Ministry says.

"At this rate, in a very short time there will be no more Nukak," said
Humberto Ruiz, an anthropologist who has studied the tribe. "They will
be a vague memory."

The Nukak are a branch of the Maku family of nomadic Indians who have
journeyed the northwest Amazon River basin of current-day Colombia,
Peru and Brazil for thousands of years. The branches the Maku are tied
together by language.

Since the first contact with settlers, influenza has obliterated most of
the Nukak, which had no resistance to the disease. Deforestation has
cut their food supply and led to malnutrition.

Anthropologists believe there are only a few dozen Nukak still living
deep in the jungle, relatively untouched by civilization.

Added to the pressures on the tribe, leftist rebels and outlawed
right-wing militias have been battling in the Indian's homelands for
control of coca, the base ingredient of cocaine, which flourishes
naturally in the region and provides the warring groups with huge
revenues.

No Nukak has been reported killed, but the clashes have terrified the
Indians and caused some to flee ancestral grounds.

A Nukak clan of 10 families fled its camp, near a settlers' village on
the edge of their reservation, in January because of the fighting.

"We were afraid, afraid of the explosions," said Yeuna, the clan's
leader who goes by only one name.

The clan is now idled at a makeshift camp in a jungle clearing near the
village of Barrancon, a half-hour boat ride upriver from San Jose del
Guaviare, the provincial capital of Guaviare state.

Aid workers have been bringing rice, lentils and yucca every 15 days to
the camp, where colorful hammocks swing from trees whose dense leaves
filter the sun's burning rays. The aid has led to stomach ailments
because of the change from the Indians' traditional fare, but moreover
it is increasing their dependence on others.

Which points to the irony of helping nomadic tribes: while it may be
well-meaning, it can lead to their destruction by eroding native ways.

Hugo Quijano, one of the workers, acknowledged the aid is "interfering
with Nukak culture" but said it is needed because Yeuna's clan lacks
the wide areas needed to hunt and fish.

"We are trying to limit our contact with them as much as possible, but
the conditions of the area they are in make that difficult," Quijano
said.

The United Nations estimates there are more than 300 indigenous tribes
in the Amazon basin, but only about 60 remain in isolation, in Brazil
and Peru.

Symbolizing what is happening across the Amazon region, Yeuna's clan is
gradually trading nomadic ways for a more sedentary existence: They are
learning Spanish, wearing T-shirts and baseball caps and drinking
Coca-Cola.

Still, Yeuna's clan maintains many traditions. The women keep their
eyebrows plucked and their hair very short. The men, who are lean and
practically hairless, sometimes leave the camp to fish or to hunt
monkeys.

The Indians also maintain strong ecological practices. As nomads, they
plant seeds before abandoning a camp, and raise baby monkeys whose
mothers have been hunted and eaten, even going so far as to breast-feed
them. When they are grown, the Indians release the monkeys into the
wild, symbolically replenishing the natural supply.

During a recent visit by a reporter, Nukak children _ ignoring a radio
in the camp _ became mesmerized by a woman of the clan as she broke
into song in the Nukak's native language. More than half of the 40
Indians in the camp are children, and they all speak Nukak.

There are no elders. They have all died. The oldest known living Nukak
is estimated to be in her early 40's. Ruiz said the Nukak used to live
into their 60s, but contact with diseases appears to have shortened
their life span.

While everyone agrees that first contact with the modern world has
forever changed the Nukak, there is little consensus on how to preserve
their culture while still allowing those who want to integrate into
modern society to do so.

"One cannot force a group to conserve itself, like an artifact in a
museum," Ruiz noted.

Assimilation appears to be unstoppable, in any case.

Nukak clans _ like Yeuna's _ are drifting closer to towns and cities,
where the settlers' lifestyle is seen as being easier and more
attractive than living hand-to-mouth in the remote jungle. The Indians
are still susceptible to the flu, but access to health care means it is
less likely to turn into pneumonia and kill them.

Once they leave the old ways behind, it's hard to go back.

Manuel Garcia grew up with his Nukak clan, but after both his parents
died when he was 8 years old, he was adopted by a settler in San Jose
del Guaviare.

After turning 18, he reconnected with a group of Nukak.

"I tried to live with them in the jungle, but I only lasted six months.
I had to leave. I just didn't have the same toughness that they did,"
said Garcia, who is now a health worker and is helping Yeuna's clan.

Yeuna, sitting in a hammock and surrounded by his five children and his
pregnant wife, insisted that he eventually wants to lead the clan to
their ancestral lands.

"We want to go back," Yeuna said in broken Spanish. "But we are waiting
for them to stop fighting."

There is no sign, however, that the Colombian Army _ which is stretched
thin as it battles the rebels across the nation _ will be able to oust
the outlawed warring factions from Yeuna's homeland anytime soon.

In the meantime, the clan continues to wait, and adapt to life in the
21st century.