http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23911279-23109,00.html THE man behind photos of warriors from an "undiscovered" Amazon tribe that were beamed around the world has admitted it was a publicity stunt aimed at raising awareness of logging. Indigenous tribes expert, José Carlos Meirelles, said the tribe had been known of since 1910, and had been photographed to prove that they still existed in an area endangered by logging, The Guardian reported. Mr Meirelles, who was working for Funai, the Brazilian Indian Protection Agency dedicated to finding remote tribes and protecting them, said he spent three years gatheiring "evidence" about the tribe, and then planned the publicity to protect them from losing their habitat. Mr Meirelles, 61, said the "chance encounter" that produced the famous photographs was no accident. "When we think we might have found an isolated tribe, a sertanista (tribe expert) like me walks in the forest for two or three years to gather evidence and we mark it in our (global positioning system)," he told Al Jazaera in his first interview since the images were released. "We then map the territory the Indians occupy and we draw that protected territory without making contact with them. And finally we set up a small outpost where we can monitor their protection." He said the Brazilian state of Acre offered him the use of an aircraft for three days. "I had years of GPS co-ordinates," he said. "A friend of mine sent me some Google Earth co-ordinates and maps that showed a strange clearing in the middle of the forest and asked me what that was. "I saw the co-ordinates and realised that it was close to the area I had been exploring with my son – so I needed to fly over it." Mr Meirelles said he he flew a 150km-radius route over the border region with Peru and saw huts that belonged to isolated tribes. But he did not see people. "When the women hear the plane above, they run into the forest, thinking it's a big bird," he said. "This is such a remote area, planes don't fly over it." On the third day , Mr Meirelles spotted a large community. "When I saw them painted red, I was satisfied, I was happy," he said. "Because painted red means they are ready for war, which to me says they are happy and healthy defending their territory." Survival International, the organisation that released the pictures along with Funai, conceded yesterday that Funai had known about the nomadic tribe for around two decades. It defended the disturbance of the tribe saying the international media attention surrounging the images had forced Peru to re-examine its logging policy in the border area where the tribe lives.
Wasn't that apparent from the original story? Was anyone under the impression that they didn't know the tribe existed until the day they took the pictures? Is this supposed to be a demerit for the protection agency?
Not very big news...it sounds like they're trying to make the story less important. On the other hand, I still find it incredible. Known or unknown - the tribesmen still thought the chopper was a bird, they are still living in the middle of the Amazon without any "known" (from their perspective) contact with civilization, and so on. As with the Google Earth - the tribe wasn't spotted through Google Earth, the logging was...and the expert noticed it was getting quite close to the tribe.
If it were a lost tribe then it wouldn't be lost now would it, since the photographer knew about the history...
Not less important per se...but old news. We've known about this particular tribe for 100 years. It's akin to starting a thread announcing the Rockets traded the rights to Rudy Gay for Shane Battier. Still worthy of a remark...but hardly news.
I don't know how other articles or reporters were reporting this event, but the article that kicked off this thread never said the tribe was "undiscovered." In fact, the "hoaxster," Meireilles, says in the original article that they knew this group belonged to one of 4 tribes in that area that they have accompanied for 20 years. I don't see any attempt to really mislead anyone into thinking we didn't know people were there. They knew; what's new is that logging is encroaching on their territory. Here's the article again.
Sounds to me like that was still the first time he "spotted" them. btw: who was it in this thread to say that it looks phoney because why would they paint themselves red for battle as opposed to camoflauge. haha
It's still interesting that these people exist whether they were cataloged or not. Nobody in here knew jack enough to dispute it. Most of us probably learned something or got to wrap our minds around something we only vaguely knew about. Not exactly useless.
