page_title: Uncontacted peoples
section_title: Brazil
hierarchical_section_title: Uncontacted peoples / South America / Brazil
caption_attribution_description: Português: Índios isolados no estado brasileiro do Acre. English: Uncontacted indigenous tribe in the brazilian state of Acre.
context_page_description: Uncontacted peoples are communities or groups of indigenous peoples living without sustained contact to neighbouring communities and the world community. In 2013 there were thought to be roughly 100 uncontacted peoples worldwide, half of whom live in the Amazon rainforest.
  Existing knowledge of indigenous peoples in isolation comes mostly from encounters with neighbouring communities like other indigenous peoples, and from aerial footage.
context_section_description: Until the 1970s Brazil attempted unsuccessfully to assimilate or move anyone on lands that could be commercially cultivated. Then, in 1987, it set up the Department of Isolated Indians inside the Fundação Nacional do Índio, facilitating the work of Sydney Possuelo or José Carlos Meirelles, and declared the Vale do Javari, which encompasses an area of 85,444.82 km ² (32,990 mi ²), perpetually sealed off. In 2007, the Fundação Nacional do Índio reported the presence of 67 uncontacted indigenous peoples in Brazil, up from 40 in 2005.
  The Awá are people living in the eastern Amazon rainforest. There are approximately 350 members, and 100 of them have no contact with the outside world. They are considered highly endangered because of conflicts with logging interests in their territory.
  The Kawahiva live in the north of Mato Grosso. They are usually on the move and have little contact with outsiders. Thus, they are known primarily from physical evidence they have left behind – arrows, baskets, hammocks, and communal houses.
  The Korubu live in the lower Vale do Javari in the western Amazon Basin.
  Other tribes may include the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau, and the Himarimã. There may be uncontacted peoples in Terra Indigena Uru-Eu-Uaw-Uaw and Terra Indigena Xinane Isolados.
caption: Members of an uncontacted tribe in Acre, Brazil in 2009
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