Another US missionary is reported to have entered the territory of an uncontacted tribe in Brazil , potentially position them in grave danger , just two months afterJonathan Chau was killedby an uncontacted tribe on an island in the Bay of Bengal .
Steve Campbell , a Christian missioner from Maine , illegally entered an area of the Brazilian rain forest that ’s occupied by the Hi - Merimã tribe , one of the arena ’s few remaining uncontacted tribal group , according toSurvival International .
The man is presently being questioned by FUNAI , Brazil ’s autochthonic affairs department , who stated he could be in serious trouble if he ’s find oneself shamefaced .
“ If it is found in the investigating that there was an stake in making contact … he could be charged with the crime of racial extermination by deliberately exposing the safety gadget and life of the Hi - Merimã , ” Bruno Pereira , worldwide coordinator at FUNAI , toldBrazilian casual newspaperFolha de S.Paulo .
It ’s uncertain how many members of theHi - Merimãtribe are around today , but the last estimation , in 1943 , claimed there were up to 1,000 individuals . They live along the Piranhas River in the State of Amazonas and have conserve extremely modified contact with outsiders , even neighboring tribes .
Like all tribes who have had little to no contact with the wide man , they have not had the opportunity to build up up immunity to the many diseases of the globalized industrial world . In theory , a coarse cold could wipe them out .
“ Even if direct contact has not go on , the probability of transmission of diseases to the isolated is high , ” a FUNAI representative toldReuters .
Campbell has defended his actions by keep he entered the territory as it was the only manner to strive his destination , the home of a neighboring kindred called the Jamamadi , who he has lived with for decades . It ’s undecipherable whether he really come into physical contact with the Hi - Merimã , although he has since promised to annul deliver to the off - limit region again .
Brazil ’s 305 uncontacted tribe are only probably tosuffer further problemsfollowing the election of Jair Bolsonaro . The far - right populist once said " If I become President there will not be a centimeter more of indigenous land " , dismissing indigenous right matter as “ gimcrack ” that arrive in the way of mining and agriculture .
Speaking toCampo Grande Newsin 2015 , he stated : " The Indians do not speak our language , they do not have money , they do not have culture . They are native peoples . How do they manage to have 13 percent of the national territory ? "
