Members of one of the world’s last uncontacted tribes have been spotted and photographed from the air near the Brazil-Peru border. The photos were taken during several flights over one of the remotest parts of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil’s Acre state.

‘We did the overflight to show their houses, to show they are there, to show they exist,’ said uncontacted tribes expert José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Júnior. Meirelles works for FUNAI, the Brazilian government’s Indian affairs department. ‘This is very important because there are some who doubt their existence.’

Meirelles says that the group’s numbers are increasing. But other uncontacted groups in the region, whose homes have been photographed from the air, are in severe danger from illegal logging in Peru. Logging is driving uncontacted tribes over the border and could lead to conflict with the estimated five hundred uncontacted Indians already living on the Brazilian side.

It makes the mind boggle that there are places on Earth that are 'innocent' to the civilized world.

How to they know this is one of the last unknown tribes? By definition we don't know about the others yet.

Wonder what kind of medical marvels they could possess???

Do you suppose they're not noticing the flyovers? Wonder what they think of them.....

Wait.. since when have we ever been civilized? My guess is they are a lot more civilized than any of us. Reading this actually made me jealous, I wish I could be a part of it, complete freedom of mind and spirit.

I hope they release more photos from better angles to find out more about this elusive tribe.

I hope they don't. Poor people must be terrified of these massive, really noisy flying monsters.

Why can't we just leave them alone to live in peace? What can the modern world possibly offer them?

Sort of like David Attenborough studying animals.

We could kidnap one, strap a critter-cam to his head, and set him loose again.

I'm sorry... the whole "ooh - new people! Let's study them!" just smacks of "alien being! Strap it to a table and pass me the scalpel, nurse!"

Probably because there's not that many places left to look.

I hope they don't. Poor people must be terrified of these massive, really noisy flying monsters.

Why can't we just leave them alone to live in peace? What can the modern world possibly offer them?

Pretty cool that tribes like that still exist. No disrespect to the tribe but I lol'd pretty hard when i saw of the picture of them trying to shoot the helicopter with bows and arrows

They look at fear to the plane, the same as most people do with ufo's.

Wow -- it's totally mind-boggling. It makes one wonder if these people represent and unbroken chain of a culture dating back to the stone age.

These pictures are incredible.

SAO PAULO (AFP) — Dramatic images of an isolated Brazilian tribe believed never to have had contact with the outside world were published by officials Friday to draw attention to threats posed to their way of life.

The pictures, released by the Brazilian government's National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), showed alarmed natives pointing bows and arrows at the aircraft carrying photographers.

The head of FUNAI's environmental protection unit responsible for the images, Jose Carlos dos Reis Meirelles, told AFP the foundation had known of the existence of the tribe for years -- located in thick rainforest near the Peruvian border -- and many photos had been taken.

"We have been watching this isolated indigenous community for at least 20 years. The idea in revealing the photos was to raise the alarm over the risk threatening them," he said in a telephone interview from western Acre state, where the indigenous group is located.

He explained the tribe had been pushed slowly out of Peruvian territory into Brazil by loggers cutting down their Amazon basin habitat, and that the pace of the illegal deforestation was now accelerating.

"Peruvian authorities recently said this indigenous community doesn't exist. Well, they do exist and they are facing an enormous risk," Meirelles said.

"But they weren't just discovered today. All this region is a cultural mosaic and there are four different identified groups living close to one another," he said.

He said he did not know -- "and didn't care to know" -- what ethnic group the isolated tribe came from.

"All I care about is protecting them, keeping them in their isolation."

The pictures show the tribe's members, their skin painted red and black, in a village of huts with thatched roofs.

The head of FUNAI's Isolated Indians Department, Elias Biggio, told reporters that Meirelles's team had not had any physical contact with the tribe.

Survival International, a British group lobbying on behalf of indigenous people around the world, said on its website there were fears illegal logging in Peru could also endanger the Brazilian tribe by forcing displaced Peruvian tribes into contact with it.

It said there were an estimated 500 isolated indigenous people living on the Brazilian side of the border.

"The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is protected in accordance with international law. Otherwise, they will soon be made extinct," Survival International director Stephen Corry said.

His group said there were more than 100 uncontacted indigenous tribes worldwide.

What has yet to be mentioned is that they were a Peruvian tribe pushed out of the territory by loggers who destroyed their territory in Peru. So it is very likely they know about us

Survival International
The Australian
More info on uncontacted tribes (including a video).

Just think. The lucky people hadn't even heard of reality tv or boy bands.

It has to make you wonder about modern humans. We spend billions of dollars looking on planets other than our own. And we wonder why humans have not found cures for things like cancer and aids. I mean every few months a new animal has been found on this planet or hey a brand new micro organism found in solid ice in Antarctica but a entire tribe of people have been lost for HOW LONG? Its no wonder humans suffer from stupid things with a lack for cures when we have not even found all the different races of people on this planet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean this should be an embracing conflict in the scientific world. And they needed the photos to prove it? Well I mean hey we got photos of ET and no one thinks they ever made it down here so why couldn’t these just be the same old tribe of folks they seen last year that just moved up river for the summer months? Sure I think this is a new tribe it just stumps me that our science is so perfectly balanced that these people sneak past us. They could be holding the key to a new cure for many things just that simple. But weigh it out our science will for sure. They will be in there next week pulling blood samples and trading them candy bars for answers. And when they get done we got one of two things a new tribe infected with everything the rest of the world has or maybe cures for things we didn’t have. I say explore every inch of this planet from every direction up and down before we spend billions on planets that look dead threw a telescope anyway. Who knows maybe a few of those arrows they got pointed in the rear will point us in the right direction.

Makes You Wonder

I agree with half your posting. I find you fairly pathetic when you "lol" at the tribe defending their village. You're smug within your room, posting upon the world-wide-web, yet "lol" at humans on a simpler scale than yourself. I "lol" at your smugness.

I don't believe it. I think it's a hoax.
In the early 1970s an "undiscovered tribe" was "found" in the Philippines. Turned out, it was all a hoax perpetrated by the Philippine government to increase tourism and obtain foreign money to "investigate" the tribe.
As soon as I read about this Brazilian tribe, I flashed back on the Philippine hoax.
I predict this will be found to be a hoax, or have very suspicious factors that point to a hoax.
Call me a curmudgeon but that's my gut feeling on this.

Too bad they wont be left alone.

I wonder what kind of mosquito repellent they use

We could kidnap one, strap a critter-cam to his head, and set him loose again.

I'm sorry... the whole "ooh - new people! Let's study them!" just smacks of "alien being! Strap it to a table and pass me the scalpel, nurse!"

They're people. If they want to be studied, they can sign up for reality TV.

I get the DAILY MAIL, and read the article. It is nice to see habitats and cultures that are untouched by modern man. They probably thought the plane, or helicopter was something evil. In a way, they are right. It was obvious that they weren't happy being disturbed by what must have appeared as a monstrous creature to them.

They look at fear to the plane, the same as most people do with ufo's. They see it as some kind of bird or demon, as ufo's have been personified as mistaken known objects, and also, demonized without the relevant facts to back up fact from fiction.

No doubt, the air vehicle used will be seen in another couple of hundred years, where they will have carved an aeroplane figure or such-like referring it to some fearsome devil, or god-like creature. It will be passed down through story-telling.

Which suggests that ufos perceived in ancient times were commonplace now as they were then, but where our antecedents saw them as gods to be feared, because of their strange craft.

also, ask yourself how some ancient cultures were able to depict helicopters and planes in their ancient artefacts? How did they know about them?

Next time, you look up in the sky and see an unexplained craft overhead, which couldn't possibly have come from Earth, consider the fact that we are the tribe, who is in fear of what it doesn't understand, and is prepared to shoot down like these people were prepared to do with their bows and arrows.

Despite our advancement over the tribe in Brazil, we are similiar to them in our fear of not being able to understand what we don't know and are prepared to make war against that we don't understand.

Those people in the air vehicle intended no harm to the inhabitants of the village, but the people below didn't know that, and the same applies to the ufos', which are very real, and not always ifo's, make be just like the passengers of the air vehicle that flew overhead.

Why can't we just leave them alone to live in peace? What can the modern world possibly offer them?

I agree, the modern world would just give them diseases that their immune system isn't designed for, tax, a polluted air and much much more..
If given a choice I would want to be reborn in those uncontacted tribe.

Wait.. since when have we ever been civilized? My guess is they are a lot more civilized than any of us. Reading this actually made me jealous, I wish I could be a part of it, complete freedom of mind and spirit.

I agree - we need to leave them alone. western influence has killed many tribal people. Hopefully some one won't get the idea that they need to be saved . And we don't need some yahoo thinking this is going to be his thesis paper for collage and they end up in jean shorts and Orange Crush t shirts.

What do you define as western influence?

In a short while, someone will post a youtube video produced by somebody else and claim it describes their opinion on the subject.

In fact, as the photographer, José Carlos Meirelles, recently explained, authorities have known about this particular tribe since 1910. The photographer and the agency that released the pictures wanted to make it seem like they were members of a lost tribe in order to call attention to the dangers the logging industry may have on the group.