[Image: Funai / Facebook]
In what must have been a true Jungle Book moment, a young man from an isolated Indigenous tribe in the Amazon approached a different community after appearing from nowhere and waving two sticks above his head.
The encounter occurred on Wednesday in Bela Rosa, a community along the Purus River in the southwestern Amazon.
Footage obtained by The Associated Press shows him barefoot and wearing a small loincloth, seemingly calm and in good health as he carried two logs.
Locals believe the man was asking for fire and a smartphone video of the encounter showed one resident trying unsuccessfully to show the man how to use a lighter.
Officials from Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency, Funai, arrived soon after and took him to a nearby facility, although the young man is said to have returned to the forest on Thursday afternoon.
The agency added that a team of health professionals was sent to assess if the young man had been exposed to any disease to which isolated Indigenous tribes have no immunity. They also said surveillance has been established to prevent people from reaching the isolated tribe’s location.
As a policy, Brazil does not actively seek contact with these groups but instead establishes protected and monitored areas, such as Mamoriá Grande, near where the encounter occurred.
The Brazilian government estimates between 77 and 84 uncontacted tribes still live in the jungles of Brazil. These groups choose to remain uncontacted and attempts to reach them often end badly for either the visitors or the tribe. Many of our modern diseases are fatal to these communities, so a visitor with the flu could potentially decimate an entire tribe.
This is not the first time an isolated tribe reached out for help to make fire. Two brothers of the Piripkura tribe initiated contact with authorities in 2019 after a fire they had kept burning for 18 years went out.
Considering how the modern world is doing at the moment, I would suggest that the little guy stays in the jungle.
[Source: CNN]
