from: Dilwyn Jenkins: The
rough guide to Peru; Rough Guides, New York, London,
Delhi; 6th edition September 2006; www.roughguides.com
The white and mestizo
industry is pushing back the natives - some tribes have
died out - self destruction by gold mining and timber
industry
Today the main
problems facing the Indians, here as elsewhere, are loss of
territory, the merciless pollution of their rivers [mercury
by gold mining], devastating environmental destruction
(caused mainly by large-scale gold-mining) and new waves of
oil exploration by multinationals (p.541).
Off the main Madre de Dios waterways, within the system of
smaller tributaries and streams, live a variety of different
indigenous groups. All are depleted [reduced] in numbers due
to contact with Western influences and diseases, but while
some have been completely wiped out over the last twenty
years, several have maintained their isolation. Many tribes
were acculturated as late as the 1950s and 1960s, and
occasionally "uncontacted" groups turned up during the 1980s
and 1990s. These are, however, usually segments of a larger
tribe that split or dispersed with the arrival of the rubber
barons, and they are fast being secured in controllable
mission villages. Most of the native tribes that remain in,
or have returned to, their traditional territories now find
themselves forced to take on seasonal work for the
colonos who have staked
claims around the major rivers. In the dry season (May-Nov),
this usually means panning for gold - the region's most
lucrative commodity [with all mercury effects]. In the rainy
season, Brazil nut collection takes over. The timber
industry, too, is well established, and most of the
accessible large cedars are already gone.
If you go anywhere in the jungle, especially on an organized
tour, you're likely to stop off at a tribal village for at
least half an hour or so, and the more you know about the
people, the more you'll get out of the visit.
Ese Eja indígenas
Downstream from Puerto Maldonado, the most populous
indigenous group are the
Ese
Eja tribe (often wrongly, and derogatorily [with
negative connotation], called 'Huarayos' by colonos).
Originally semi-nomadic hunters and gatherers, the Ese Eja
were well-known warriors who fought the Incas and, later on,
the Spanish expedition of Alvarez Maldonado - eventually
establishing fairly friendly and respectful relationships
with both.
Under Fitzcarrald's reign, they suffered greatly through the
engaño system, which
tricked them into slave labour through credit offers on
knives, machetes, pots and pans, which then took years, or
in some cases a lifetime to work off. Today they live in
fairly large communities and have more or less abandoned
their original bark-cloth robes in favour of shorts and
T-shirts.
Huachipaeri, Amarakaeri,
Sapitoyeri, Arasayri and Toyeri natives - self destruction
by gold and timber - university schooling and coming back
Upstream from Puerto Maldonado live several native tribes,
known collectively (again, wrongly and derogatorily [with
negative connotation]) as the Mashcos but actualy comprising
at least five separate linguistic groups - the
Huachipaeri, Amarakaeri,
Sapitoyeri, Arasayri and Toyeri. All typically use
long bows - over 1.5m - and lengthy arrows, and most
settlements will also have a shotgun or two these days,
since less time can be dedicated to hunting when they are
panning for gold or working timber for
colonos.
Traditionally, they wore long bark-cloth robes and had long
hair, and the men often stuck eight feathers into the skin
around their lips, making them look distinctively fierce and
cat-like. Having developed a terrifying hatred of white
people during the rubber era, they were eventually conquered
and settled by missionaries and the army about forty years
ago. Many Huachipaeri and Amarakaeri groups are now actively
engaging with the outside world on their own terms, without
interference from organizations with their own agendas.
These days some of their young men and women have gone
through university education and later return to their
native villages (p.543).