"Twilight for the Forest People"

[Earl Otchingwanigan]

Greetings Don Osborn et al: The dilemma is not whether to leave the isolated peoples to their fate or not, the dilemma is the seemingly inherent nature of humankind's inability to not interfere with anything that exists in a natural condition.  This peculiarity is easily noted; tell someone to not touch something, the moment your back is turned, they will touch it.  As a native person however, there exists a mentality within certain cultures and groups that has continually perplexed me.  To cite as to what I have speaks of here, in "my" area of the Great Lakes, when the first Europeans arrived, they saw the wolf as part of a grand primeval scheme to prevent the advancement in bettering their idea of what life should be.  By 1940, the wolf was nearly extinct along with the wanton clear cutting of the virgin timber.  The Lake States actually had "licensed" hunters to eradicate the wolf thereby making "life safe" and to improve the deer herd for the benefit of the annual deer hunt and hunters so that they can "reconnect" with their "roots".  Recently, the wolf population has made a comeback, but of course it now poses a perceived "threat" and therefore needs regulation so everyone will feel safe on their ATVs and snowmobiles whilst in the "wilds", not to mention, a few farmers complaining that the wolf might just kill a calf.  Referencing Don Osborn's "pardon for the dumb question", rather let us refer to it as a thought incomplete.  It would seem to me, no peoples ever existed without contact with others, certainly, indigenous people continually interact with each other.  No one is isolated.  As to the second part of the question, if that area of the rainforest is presently "untouched" and these natives dwelling there have successfully retained their lifestyle, then currently in this condition how can it "still [be] an area dominated by people from [the] dominant cultures" save for Brazil or Peru's claim to a "non-discovery", ah but then the chainsaw, yes!  Regardless of the quaintness of John Noble Wilford's article in the NY Times, especially written from perhaps a high-rise, on the plight of these people, it all comes back to the original theory of don't touch it.  You can now be assured with all the publicity that these "poor natives" will now need to be rescued and saved, most of all, their souls, and brought forth to share in the fruits of what all modern life has to offer, please!  This occurred with my people, and man, well.....no need to go there, now is there?  After all, I can speak only for myself.  Cheers, Earl Otchingwanigan
        
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Don Osborn<mailto:dzo at BISHARAT.NET> 
  To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU<mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU> 
  Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2008 7:53 AM
  Subject: [ILAT] "Twilight for the Forest People"


  FYI. The article frames a dilemma in terms of "whether to leave them [isolated peoples] to their fate or to assimilate them into the larger world before they are extinguished." I assume the range of options is not quite that simple. Pardon the dumb question, but are indigenous groups of any sort involved in initial contacts, or is this still an area dominated by people from the dominant cultures?

   

   

  Twilight for the Forest People

  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/weekinreview/08wilford.html

  By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

  Published: June 8, 2008

   

  The world is closing in on the few remaining people who live in such remote isolation as to seem not of this world.

   

  .

   

  A reminder of their situation came recently with the publication of aerial photographs of the encampment of a tribe in the upper reaches of the Amazon River in Brazil, near the border with Peru. The pictures showed a line of neat huts and people looking up at the small airplane. Two men, their faces and bodies painted red, raised bows and arrows as a pointed warning to the intruder.

   

  As survivors whose continued survival is very much in doubt, these last primitive tribes hidden away in the planet's most remote reaches pose a dilemma for their would-be protectors: whether to leave them to their fate or to assimilate them into the larger world before they are extinguished.

   

  Neither course promises a happy ending.

   

  If they remain isolated, these populations may cling to their way of life a little longer. Some have moved deeper into the rainforest, away from encroaching loggers and oil prospectors. But the bulldozers and saws seem destined to end their solitude.

   

  If they are removed and survive the exposure to diseases they have never encountered, it is likely that the unique knowledge and beliefs that define them, the spirit of their life, will probably slip away.

   

  The Brazilian government's National Indian Foundation, Funai, came upon the encampment as it was making one of its regular patrols of the scattered settlements of tribes in the State of Acre who are thought to have had little direct contact with the outside world. The picture-taking plane had no intention of landing: it was only checking the location and apparent well-being of the people.

   

  Survival International, a London-based organization supporting the cause of struggling indigenous people, estimates that at least 100 similarly isolated tribes remain in the world, about half of them in Brazil and Peru.

   

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