SOME JOBS ARE INHERENTLY MORE DANGEROUS THAN OTHERS

by Bob Walsh

It is true.  Running a Sunday School for eight-year olds is probably pretty safe.  Being a bomb disposal tech is probably relatively not safe.  Reil Franciscato, 56, was a career civil servant in Brazil.  He was a leading expert in indigenous people, especially uncontacted tribes, that still exist in small numbers deep in the rain forest.

On Wednesday, near the Uru Eu Wau Wau reservation in western Brazil he attempted first contact with a tribal group.  They were not interested and shot him in the chest with an arrow.  He pulled the arrow out, ran about 50 yards and then dropped dead.

The current government is far less interested in protecting isolated indigenous tribes than previous governments have been.  The current government is interested in "integrating them into modern society" and, of course, sucking all the resources out of the areas where they live.

EDITOR'S NOTE: In 1993, my son and I received permission from the Venezuelan government to venture into Yąnomamö territory ... at our own risk. The Yąnomamö are a stone age tribe.  Warriors from the different villages were still raiding each other for the young women of the tribe. 

The Venezuelan government is, or was at the time, trying to protect the Yąnomamö, but they were being decimated by malaria and missionaries.  The missionaries were enticing members of the tribe to stay at their missions.  They would clothe and educate them ... and, of course, convert them.  Then they would ship them off to Puerto Ayacucho where most of them ended up as drunks.

My son and I had the good fortune, along with our two guides, to visit two
Yąnomamö villages.  It was the highlight of our three-weeks deep in the Amazon.