Uncontacted tribe fires warning arrows at fishermen

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An uncontacted tribe issued a stark warning to outsiders in Peru’s south-east Amazon last week after they tore down one fisherman’s camp and shot arrows at another passing close to their land.

Pilco Pereyra was fishing with his wife and child in the Madre de Dios region, three hours from an area set aside for uncontacted tribes, when they saw four Indians standing on the riverbank, ‘naked and painted red, with long hair’.

The tribe shot arrows towards the family’s boat, but no-one was injured.

Local Indigenous organization FENAMAD said the incident was a warning rather than an attack and has asked all fishermen to stay well away from the area until the threat has passed.

The Madre de Dios reserve was created in 2002 to protect a number of uncontacted tribes including the Mashco Piro, who were photographed in 2007.

Despite efforts to protect the Indians’ land, illegal logging continues unabated within uncontacted tribes’ reserves.

The Indians often leave warning signs and occasionally attack outsiders to protect themselves from disease and violence that contact can bring.