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Contact! Intel
 

December 20—Louise McGrath, a friend of Sydney Possuelo, faxed Contact! producer Valerie May with disturbing news from the Amazon. The expedition has been receiving death threats, especially in the last few weeks. A local judge, moreover, has ruled that anyone—including loggers—who earns a living from the Vale do Javari must be allowed into the indigenous region.


November 26—Sydney Possuelo will return to the expedition site the last week of November—several months ahead of schedule—according to an update interview with National Geographic Online. He’ll begin “Stage Two” of the expedition, briefing the Korubo on the dangers they face as they meet their neighbors. Curiosity and confidence boosted by contact, the Indians have twice emerged from the jungle to visit the crew aboard the Waika, anchored at the expedition site.


November 15—Read about the expedition’s second contact with the Korubo—see dispatches from October 21-29. Stay tuned for further updates.


November 8—Check out Nicolas Reynard’s exclusive account and photographs of contact with the Korubo—see dispatches from October 9-20.


October 29— Enter the scene of first contact today via producer Valerie May’s exclusive interview with expedition leader Sydney Possuelo. Hear a live excerpt from their phone conversation, made possible by satellite communication and an interpreter. See history-making photographs by Nicolas Reynard.


October 23— An expedition led by Sydney Possuelo (a director in FUNAI, the Brazilian Indian agency) has made peaceful contact with a group of 21 Korubo Indians—a hostile and isolated tribe deep in Brazil’s Amazonia. The expedition entered the jungle October 9, and followed a trail about ten miles (16 kilometers) into the rain forest. Camp was established within a half mile (700 meters) of two Korubo malocas  [huts]. The contact expedition—a group of 13 including representatives from three local tribes—set out gifts of grain, pots, and machetes in the surrounding area.

On October 15 the Korubo finally approached the expedition. “We heard their voices calling to us from the surrounding jungle, but they wouldn’t show themselves,” said Online photographer Nicolas Reynard.

Possuelo ordered the expedition to split into two groups and explore the surrounding area. When they returned to the campsite four Korubo, one woman and three warriors, awaited them. The situation was “untrustworthy...not scary but skittish,” said FUNAI spokesman Marinho dos Santos. But within hours a more relaxed communication was established and the rest of the tribe, including children, entered the camp. The groups spent the next three days “visiting, eating together...there was dancing and joking...they talked and showed and explained things to each other,” said dos Santos.

This landmark contact follows decades of hostility between the Korubo and local settlers, loggers, and fishermen. Stay tuned for the full story and exclusive photographs.

©1996 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.