Amazon Page #2

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The Indians arrived during the last ice age

Which ended thousands of years ago

After the Europeans arrived 500 years ago

In quest of land,slaves and gold

Indiginous people fled deeper into

the wilderness

More than 400 tribes have been identified

in the Amazon basin

Others may remain undiscovered

With no sense of time beyond tomorrow,they live

in hidding,cradeled in a everlasting present

As late as 1943 the upper ridges of the Xingu

river were largely unexplored

Orlando Villas Bas and his brothers left

Sao Polo with an expedition called

Xingu River adventure

Some things only happen once

in the history of the world

It was a moment in time that

cannot be repeated.

After three years and 3000 km

of a path cut with machetes

We encountered for the first time

the Indian population of the upper Xingu

Very little was known about them and they

know only enough of the outside world to stay hidden as in centuries past

The Villas boys won acclaim for their success

in postponing the bulldozing march of civilization into the Xingu

In time the Villas boys were overcome by

roadbuilders,malaria and old age

But their dream for survival of the Indians

lives on

Sydney Possuelo carries on the legendary work

of the brothers Villas Boas

Sydney's task is to seek out isolated tribes

and promote legislation to keep Indian lands

off-limits to all outsiders

North of the Amazon mainstream

Lives a tribe of Indians known as Zo

I believe the Indians should only be contacted

when is necessary to protect them

It's a dilemma

Do we artificially isolate them ?

Or share the technology of our modern world ?

Sydney was among the first to make

contact with the Zo

Only recently has their presence become known

I am pleased to find no mosquitos,no malaria

and no sickness

Except a woman who had a toothache that her

granddaughter treated with medicinal plants

There is rumor that the Zo encountered

a people living up to the north

A tribal that is unknown to us

Some of the men agree to show me where

the strangers had been seen

When first encountered by jaguar hunters,

the Zo were called Poturu

For the ornamental jaw poturu wood

that Zo wear day and night

We don't know who the others might be

But if they really exist

But if they are there

The gold seekers making their way up the Cuminapanema river are on a collision course

The Zo do not venture into

the forbidden north

Where they say a tribe of giants lives

And the hills of Cuminapanema touch

with stars

If there are uncontacted people

in the northern highlands

I would prefer to leave them alone

But it's critical that those who care about them

be the first to reach them

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