Brazil Finds New Tribe in Amazon

A never-before-seen indigenous tribe living in the Amazon rainforest has been revealed by aerial photographs, the latest such tribe to be discovered in the wilds of Brazil. The group, believed to contain about 200 people, has never had any contact with the outside world, the Telegraph reports. The settlement, which is located in the Javari valley, near Brazil’s border with Peru, includes straw huts and plantings of corn, bananas, and what look like peanuts and other crops.

“The plantation, as well as the huts, are new, dated to a maximum of one year,” says a member of Brazil’s National Indian Foundation. “The state of the straw used in construction and the plantings of the corn indicate this.” Brazilian law forbids contact with the tribe, and the 13 or so others thought to inhabit the region, out of fears of exposing them to diseases their immune systems aren’t equipped to handle. (More Brazil stories.)