"Sensationalism" - the existence of the Mektyre Indians in Brazil was well-known!

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) has termed as sensationalism press reports on the discovery of a "new Indian tribe" in Brazil. The existence of this group of 87 Mektyre Indians was indeed known, said the human rights organisation on Monday. The Indians had lived in voluntary isolation and consciously avoided contact with the outside world. This had also been reported in a dispatch from Associated Press on 1st June.

"In Brazil there is a number of small Indian groups which try to maintain their way of life by avoiding contact with the outside world", said the GfbV correspondent for indigenous peoples, Yvonne Bangert. "Our partner organisation CIMI knows of 60 such tribes living in voluntary isolation in the federal province of Amazon. Some of them are acutely threatened by extinction because their retreat areas are interesting for timber companies, cattle breeders or the export of minerals."

Genuine protection of these areas of retreat, in which the Mektyre and the other small isloated groups can continue their way of life without let or hindrance, is more help than sensational reports with an exotic touch.