Indian Tribe Found Deep in Amazon

Federal Indian agents said they have discovered a tribe of hunters living in near-inaccessible reaches of the Amazon rain forest. “We ran into them by accident,” said Sydney Possuelo, who heads the Federal Indian Bureau’s Department of Isolated Indians. He first encountered the tribe’s dozen huts two months ago while flying over Acre state, near Brazil’s western border with Peru. Very little is known about the tribe’s 200 members. Unlike most Amazon Indian groups that live in jungle clearings, it exists deep beneath the forest canopy. Authorities estimate that 300,000 indigenous people remain in 270 tribes, about 55 of which have yet to be contacted.