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LiveScience Senior Writer from LiveScience� Website � �
in a clearing in the
Javari Valley of the western Amazon. Javari Valley, Brazil
Peetsa/Arquivo
CGIIRC-Funai
Brazilian officials have confirmed the
existence of approximately 200 Indians who live in the western
Amazon with no contact with the outside world. �
But confirming the tribe's
existence enables government authorities to monitor the area and
protect the tribe's way of life. �
Uncontacted Indian groups are aware of
the outside world, a Survival International spokesperson told
LiveScience at the time. But they chose to live apart, maintaining a
traditional lifestyle deep in the Amazon forest. The latest images
reveal that the newly confirmed tribe grows corn, peanuts, bananas
and other crops. �
When missionaries
contacted the tribe in 1987, 45 Indians died of common diseases that
they had never encountered and thus had no tolerance for, including
the flu. In Peru, half of the previously uncontacted
Nahua tribe
died of disease after oil exploration began on their land in the
1980s.
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