The Final Stages of a Genocide- Amazon Tribe Down to Five as Oldest Member Dies

Amazon tribe down to five as oldest member dies

‘The final stages of a genocide’

The Akuntsu tribe in the Brazilian Amazon has lost its oldest member, Ururú, leaving the tribe with only five surviving members.


Ururu, the oldest member of the Akuntsu tribe, has died.

Ururú was the oldest member of this close-knit, tiny group and an integral part of it.
Altair Algayer, head of FUNAI’s (Brazilian government Indian affairs department) team which protects the Akuntsu’s land said, ‘She was a fighter, strong, and resisted until the last moment.’ In addition, the oldest-surviving Akuntsu, Ururú’s brother Konibú, is seriously ill.

Ururú witnessed the genocide of her people and the destruction of their rainforest home, as cattle ranchers and their gunmen moved on to indigenous lands in Rondônia state. Rondônia was opened up by government colonisation projects and the infamous BR 364 highway in the 1960s and 70s.

With Ururú dies a large part of the historical memory of this people. While we shall perhaps never know the full horrors inflicted on the Akuntsu in the last half century, today’s survivors say their family members were killed when ranchers bulldozed their houses and opened fire on them. The two surviving men, Konibú and Pupak, have marks on their bodies where bullets entered as they fled.

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http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/4977

The Akuntsu

Tribe's last five survivors speak of genocide

The Akuntsu are a tiny Amazonian tribe of just five individuals. They are the last known survivors of their people and live in Rondônia state, western Brazil.

In a few decades the Akuntsu will become extinct, and our planet will have lost a unique people, language and culture.

http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/akuntsu

more will know of them, K&R

those "ranchers" should be called by their real names - murderers.