When Simply Staying Alive Becomes Resistance

The Struggle of Bangladesh's Indigenous Peoples
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

Marma Children in the Chittagong Hill Tracts

Where Dreams Go To Die

We are all born with the desire to have certain things in life. We are born to desire a certain degree of freedom in this life. We are born with a fire inside that rages within us till we can quench this hunger for liberty. It is the natural state of man to crave freedom. It is why we are restless when we are deprived of it. It is why we feel hollow when it is stolen from us and replaced with one form of tyranny or another. It is a fire that either creates within us the desire to sustain our own freedoms or destroy the world as we know it till we can obtain said freedoms. All of human history attest to this.

It is no wonder that societies deprived of their basic human rights, their essential liberties, begin to reflect the symptoms of a staving body. Their minds become fixated upon what the hunger for it. They show it in their view of the world. They show it in the expressions of joy when they get a passing taste of it. But mostly... they show it in the ways they resist those who oppose their rights and keep them trapped in this state of hunger. 

For generations now the indigenous peoples of Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts have been forced to dream of what it would be like to be free in their own homeland. They have been deprived of the rights that their ancestors once enjoyed. They have been kept in a perpetual state of craving what others enjoy daily while they are forced to suffer. For generations now the indigenous peoples of Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts have simply stayed alive as an act of defiance to a nation that continually pushes them toward extinction. 

This is both what they resist and how they defy a nation. 

This is just a glimpse of what they endure.

The Jumma Tribes Of

The Chittagong Hill Tracts 

To understand the struggle one has to understand the people themselves. This article will not be able to, as no one article ever could, give you a full introduction to the indigenous tribes of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. So in addition to this post we would like to invite all our readers to research and find reliable sources (some posted in the links below) to understand the Jumma tribes more than what we have written here. 

There are eleven tribal groups that are indigenous to the Chittagong Hill Tracts. These include the Bawm, Chakma, Khumi, Khyang, Lushai, Marma, Uchay, Mru, Pankho, Sak, and Tanchangya peoples. Each are linguistically, culturally, and ethnically different from the Bengali majority that lives on the plains below the Chittagong Hills. They have distinct cultures that focus heavily on their traditional ways of life and individual religious beliefs. While the Chakma and Marma, numbering around 350,000, are mostly Buddhists the remaining tribes are comprised of Hindus, Christians, and traditional religions unique to their tribal groups. 

The traditional cultivating practices of the indigenous peoples lends to their collective name of Jummas. It is a system, called jum, of small patchwork fields that rotate in both location and the crops planted in them. It is also a system that the government of Bangladesh attempts to prevent the indigenous peoples from using. 

The Chittagong Hills stretch along the the southeastern border of Bangladesh, Inida, and Myanmar (Burma). It is a stretch of land that contains thick forests and mountain lakes. While difficult to cultivate, the Chittagong Hills do offer enough arable soil for the indigenous peoples to support their communities. 

In 1971 the Jumma tribes were practically the only inhabitants of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Their ancestral land had been exploited under Pakistan's rule yet had not been occupied in the way it would be once Bangladesh gained independence. From the very start of Bangladesh's rule the Jummas began to lose lands to the new tyrant ruling over them. 

First Came The Military

In the late 1970s the president of Bangladesh, Ziaur Rehman, signed into law a series of programs designed to create a government-run "population transfer" in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. His government immediately sat out to displace as many of the Jumma tribal groups as they could in the shortest period of time they could manage. These dictates issued the orders to begin creating a system of military installations that would gut the Chittagong Hills and divide the tribal peoples. Within just a matter of years the Bangladeshi army had created hundreds of military camps across the mountain tops along the roads they paved through the heart of the Chittagong Hills. This was a campaign to divide and conquer the Jumma peoples. 

When the Jumma peoples began to resist the military occupation of their homelands in 1976 the Bengali army moved in even more troops. By 1977 the Bengali military had begun a full scale assault on Jumma lands by ordering Jumma tribes off their land to make way for more roads and military camps. When Jumma tribes dared to stand and fight for their lands the army of Bangladesh willingly committed massacres and torched Jumma villages. The direct response to resistance was the placement of military camps on and near Jumma villages. Any route the Jumma could take to move from one village to the other was suddenly blocked by checkpoints. The strategy had shifted to complete isolation and starvation of the Jumma people in less than a year of resistance efforts by the Jumma tribes. 

The Jana Samhati Samiti, with a military wing, attempted to negotiate with Bangladesh some form of peace between the Jumma tribes and the Bengali military. Yet from 1976 till December of 1997 the government of Bangladesh only sought to forcibly expand it's presence in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Their aim was to displace the vast majority of the Jumma tribes and drive as many of the indigenous civilians as the could out of Bangladesh. This aim was made clear as the number of Jumma peoples internally displaced rose to 100,000 while the number of Jumma refugees fleeing the country rose to 70,000. 

As Bengali troops sat out to put Jumma villages to the torch the issue of rape became ever more prevalent. From 1971 on through 1994 the military of Bangladesh has been reported to have committed over 2,000 rapes of indigenous women in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. This is in part due to the fact that Bangladesh's army was given permission to engage in rape as a means of displacing Jumma families and keeping the victims silent after atrocities were committed. Jumma women were raped both for the fact that Bangladesh had indoctrinated it's troops in the belief that the Jumma women were subhuman and the enemy. In addition it was seen as a way of keeping Bengali soldiers motivated and a perverse way of keeping moral of the troops high in the isolation of the Chittagong Hills. 

It has also been reported several times that Bangladesh's military committed at least 13 large scale massacres of indigenous peoples during the Jummas' struggle to resist occupation. These attacks are often denied by Bangladesh and attributed to "crossfire" incidents. This became very clear when in August of 2013 the government of Bangladesh tried to explain away the deaths of 776 indigenous peoples as "victims of crossfire". The main problem with this explanation is that from 2004 to 2013 the government of Bangladesh only lost 18 soldiers during combat operations. The sheer number of deaths involved in these incidents disproportionately falls in favor of Bangladesh while offering only slaughter as an explanation when talking about indigenous deaths. 

After the Peace Accords of 1997 were signed the military of Bangladesh was supposed to begin dismantling it's camps that now choke the Chittagong Hills. Of the more than 500 military camps installed since the 1970s, Bangladesh has only closed a meager 29 camps. And most of these have simply been moved to other areas of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Of course the government of Bangladesh does come up with excuses for building even more military camps today; such as how they most recently used the migrant crisis in the Andaman Sea as a reason for military expansion.

Today the government of Bangladesh keeps over 1/3rd of it's military in the Chittagong Hills at any given time. The UN called this "excessive" in it's most recent review of Bangladesh's failure to implement the 1997 Peace Accords. The UN went on to note that having 1/3 of the military occupying an area of land that constitutes less than 1/10th of Bangladesh's territory was unjustifiable. It also noted that the Jumma people themselves account for less than one percent of Bangladesh's population and yet are the most policed portion of the overall population. 

Unlawful Settlers

When president Ziaur Rehman began his displacement of the Jumma people he started a program of offering Bengali citizens bribes to uproot and settle on Jumma lands. According to UN mandates, to which Bangladesh has agreed, this policy of displacement not only violates international law but also the human rights of the Jumma peoples. Namely the ILO Indigenous And Tribal Populations Convention No. 107, to which Bangladesh agreed and signed in 1972. 

Yet in spite of having agreed to international laws which prohibit the displacement of indigenous peoples the government of Bangladesh pushed forward with it's policies. Between 1971 and 1997 the government moved more than 500,000 illegal Bengali settlers onto indigenous lands. Each and every one of these settlers were encouraged by bribes from the government and promises of "free" and "open" land in the Chittagong Hills. They were told that areas would be provided for them and all they had to do was squat on lands not their own. 

From the start the Bengali settlers found themselves at odds with the indigenous population of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Settlers were prone to set up their unlawful settlements near military camps. And since the military camps were inevitably placed directly on indigenous lands this led to the intended conflict. 

Settlers were encouraged by the military to engage in evictions of their own. Bengali men were told that they had the right to utilize rape in order to force Jumma families from their homes. This was an aspect of the settlements that rapidly became one of their defining characteristics. It became so problematic that Bangladesh has resorted to telling doctors in the Chittagong Hills to exclude any evidence of rape when reporting on Jumma women and young girls. And yet at the same time the government of Bangladesh is quick, at times quicker than the actual facts, in reporting the rape of any Bengali squatter in the Chittagong Hill tracts. 

 One such case of Bengali rape of a Marma girl took place as recently as January of 2015. The eight year old girl was on her way home when a Bengali plantation owner brutally raped her. The savage attacker had left the girl to bleed out after his barbaric assault. Yet the hospital staff refused to communicate in the girl's native language and the doctors were unclear as to how they would record the attack. The perpetrator of the rape was not reported to have been arrested. And this is not an isolated incident. It is in fact far too common throughout the Chittagong Hills. 

In 2014 alone there were 75 reported cases of sexual violence against indigenous women in the Chittagong Hills. These 75 cases account for the sexual assaults of 117 indigenous women (57% of these cases also involved children). Of these cases a total of 21 involved gang-rape, 55 were victims of physical assault in addition to rape, seven of the victims were murdered, and 11 involved abductions of indigenous women. Yet despite these staggering numbers the reality is that the majority of rapes in the Chittagong Hills go unreported due to both societal and religious stigmas surrounding the crime itself. 

One could continue by detailing how in 2013 there were 175 reported incidents of sexual violence being committed against indigenous women in the Chittagong Hills (49 of which involving gang-rape). Or how of all the identified rapists from January of 2010 to December of 2011 were never convicted for their crimes against indigenous women and girls in the Chittagong Hills. But the numbers aren't as important here... it's the lives of the victims (who are increasingly ending up dead and are more often now below the age of 18) and their families that matters. This is an aspect of Bangladesh's occupation that is overlooked because it isn't something anyone wants to talk about. It is a part of the genocidal occupation that leaves scars which time itself cannot heal. And yet Bangladesh refuses to put an end to the culture of impunity that allows both Bangladesh's military and it's Bengali settlers to rape indigenous women without ever facing the consequences.

The illegal Bengali settlers are also allowed to forcibly evict and attack the Jumma without facing any legal consequences. Nearly every time the Bengali settlers attack and burn Jumma homes, villages, temples, and crops the army of Bangladesh offers support for the hordes of illegal settlers. This is most evident during incidents as that which occurred in Burighat, Naniarchar on December 16th of 2014.

This was a deliberate attack in which over 500 Bengali settlers marched into a Chakma village with the intent of destroying the entire village. The attack would last for almost two hours before the Bengali assailants would return to their own village. The attackers burned over 50 Chakma homes and several Chakma shops during the attack. They also looted and vandalized the Karuna Bihar Buddhist Temple, making off with several bronze statues. 

This attack was immediately followed by Bengali settlers attempting to take the land upon which several Chakma homes had previously stood. The illegal settlers attempted to pressure the military into offering them protection as they squatted on the land they had just torched. Meanwhile the Chakma tried desperately to keep what was being stolen from them. In the end, the government of Bangladesh blamed the Chakma and rewarded the illegal settlers with rice and cash for their assault on indigenous homes. 

This the climate in which genocidal attacks are permitted to occur. This is the work of a government that has refused to allow peace to once again come to the Chittagong Hills. It is the deliberate attempt to ethnically cleanse the indigenous peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. A government so determined to undermine indigenous rights that it would unlawfully settle over 15,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar on the lands of Jumma tribal peoples. This is the face of a government devoid of any sense of morality. 

So Why Does The World Remain Silent?

It is unreasonable when presented with the facts to think that anything in the Chittagong Hill Tracts will change without pressure being applied to Bangladesh from the outside. The government of Bangladesh has carried out it's crimes for generations. It has shown that it is willing to commit the same crimes against humanity as is Israel, Myanmar, North and South Sudan, Eritrea, and any other genocidal regime. 

Yet when it comes to the issue of indigenous peoples facing genocidal regimes the outside world has a long legacy of remaining silent. We tend to respond to genocide only when it is too late. But in the case of indigenous peoples, we tend not to respond at all. Their fate is one that we have relegated to history books and the storylines of romanticized movies. 

In the case of Bangladesh there is also the fact that the perpetrator is often seen as an impoverished nation struggling to provide for it's own people. This is an image that Bangladesh is all to happy to perpetuate as it openly claims (with yet another lie) that there are supposedly no indigenous peoples in Bangladesh. And thus it's conflict in the Chittagong Hill Tracts is one that it continues to lie about by calling it anything but what it is... genocide. 

As for the twitter realm of humanitarians...

The issue of Bangladesh's genocide in the Chittagong Hills is one that does not currently fit the prevailing narrative. It is a genocide in which the perpetrators are Muslims while the victims are Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, and those of indigenous religions. For this reason it does not gain the same favor as that of the Rohingya, Palestine, or the Uyghur of China. And this is an aspect of the silence that should be more damning than all others... but it's one never admitted to. 

There are currently more Bengali settlers on Jumma lands than there are Jumma tribal members. This is a genocide that is already passed the breaking point. It is one that is now headed for completion as the world continues to watch in silence. It is a genocide that needs addressed. And it is one that must be stopped soon before the damage is irreparable. 

We as a world community must start screaming for all those who are suffering in the Chittagong Hills (and across the globe) regardless of their race, religion, social standings, or creed. We must not only scream for the Jumma people but help their voices be heard. We must amplify their voices whenever and wherever we can.

If you call yourself a humanitarian these are not suggestions.

If you call yourself anything related to such a word as that.... then this is your fight as well.

Articles used in the research of this article:

(not all sources listed)

Survival International

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

http://t.co/18HPBfQlz5

Dhaka Tribune 

http://www.dhakatribune.com/op-ed/2015/jan/22/survivor

IRIN Asia

http://www.irinnews.org//report/92598/bangladesh-chittagong-rights-violations-continue-says-un#.VaXcwGQayc0

Cultural Survival

http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/our-home-human-rights-chittagong-hill-tracts

The Citizen (India)

http://www.thecitizen.in/NewsDetail.aspx?Id=3683&Military/Persecutes/indigenous/Communities/in/Bangladesh

IWGIA

http://www.iwgia.org/regions/asia/the-chittagong-hill-tracts-

University of Notre Dame

https://peaceaccords.nd.edu/provision/refugees-chittagong-hill-tracts-peace-accord-cht

The Daily Star

http://www.thedailystar.net/rape-used-as-weapon-35181

Asian Tribune 

http://asiantribune.com/node/83971

UNPO

http://unpo.org/article/17998

http://unpo.org/article/17268

http://unpo.org/article/17798

Asian Center For Human Rights

http://www.achrweb.org/press/2015/BD02-2015.html

We Shall Remain...

Vietnam's War On Indigenous Peoples

(Degar children)

When America went to war in Vietnam it did it without any real understanding of what conflicts were resting just beneath the surface. In the province of Gia Lai this failure to understand past conflict only served to draw the battle lines a little clearer. The Montagnard peoples of Vietnam's central highlands had a long standing conflict with Vietnam's ethnic majority. It was one not of their choosing. And it was one in which America only served as yet a new ally in an endless battle.

The Montagnard people, or Degar people in their language, had been pushed into the mountains long before colonialism. They are culturally, linguistically, and ethnically distinct from the Vietnamese majority. It was these differences that had built a barrier between them and the Vietnamese. An it was this barrier upon which colonialism preyed. The Degar had battled to survive amongst invading Vietnamese, French, and American rulers. It is in those mountains and forests that the Degar have showed the world that they will remain.

"Sons Of The Mountain"

Degar Resistance 

(Degar Resistance, 1962)

The history of the Degar tribes (including the Jarai, Rhade, Bahnar, Koho, Mnong, and Stieng) has been one of resisting foreign invasion. They were once coastal tribes that farmed the lowlands, hunted in the forests, and fished the coastal waters. In the ninth century the Vietnamese and Khmer began encroaching upon their lands. And within a short time period the Degar tribes earned their name by claiming the Central Highlands of Vietnam. They fiercely defended what other ethnic groups had seen as undesirable mountainous areas. Their tribes, around 30 tribes in all, were ethnically distinct yet shared many cultural and social structures which helped them unite in defense of the last homeland they had left. 

When colonialism began in Southeast Asia the Degar tribes were at first left alone. Then came the introduction of the Roman Catholic missionaries in the 19th century. Only a small amount of the Degar tribes embraced the Roman Catholics. Most simply wanted the French to keep the Vietnamese off their lands. And for that matter... also wished the French would stay off their lands as well. But then came the American missionaries with their version of Christianity. Colonialism under the French, with American influence, had brought a new faith to the Degar tribes. By 1930's the Degar people were beginning to adopt Christianity into their cultural practices. 

Then came the communists.

 (Degar boys work as guerrilla soldiers during The Vietnam War)

Colonialism was a brutal source of tyranny in Vietnam as a whole. The French had to combat traditional beliefs and practices in Vietnam to maintain a profit at the expense of the Vietnamese people. Without oppressive practices and a repressive power structure, French colonialism in Southeast Asia would had collapsed much more rapidly. It was no surprise that once communism arrived in the northern parts of Vietnam that the French began to lose control. Communism could be manipulated to fit the cultural structure of Vietnamese society. French exploitation could not. 

Vietnam was set to fall to the communists as France began to retreat toward the south. Those loyal to the French became targets. Everything that resembled the French colonial rule had to go. And this meant the religion the French had spread across a country that was predominately Buddhist. For the Degar people of the Central Highlands this was just one more aspect of the conflict that already existed between them and the Vietnamese. 

Ho Chi Minh set his eyes upon the Central Highlands as the communists sought out to rid Vietnam of anyone loyal to the old masters. Northern Vietnamese guerrillas and regular soldiers began to push into Degar lands. Then came the Americans...

As America began it's war against the communists the Degar people found an ally. The Degar would be pawns in America's war. Yet for them it was a role that allowed them to remain on their lands. It was a war in which they had to choose the better of two devils. The communists offered them nothing but death even if the Degar would fight the Westerners. The Americans offered them a chance to remain on their lands even if there was a horrific price to be paid in their own blood. 

The Degar peoples resisted. Just as they had done for centuries. The Degar tribes did not fight for French or American colonial rule. They did not fight to keep Vietnam free of communist rule. They simply resisted so that they could remain on their ancestral homeland. The war may have very well been a struggle between two political systems, but for the Degar it was one of survival. The Vietnamese had been the ones to push the Degar tribes to these highlands in the first place. During the war the Vietnamese threatened to push the Degar off the last strip of land they had left to call their own. 

The legacy of standing up to Vietnamese aggression is one that still haunts the Degar tribes today. Vietnam went on to win the bloody war against American aggression. The fact that the Degar tribes had sided with the Americans is a memory that has not yet been forgotten. And it is one that is still used for political gains by land-grabbing Vietnamese politicians and military leaders. 

(Degar protest in front of The White House)

Today the Degar people are oppressed in ways that directly mirror the atrocities committed against them in centuries past. The government of Vietnam is directly responsible for the confiscation of Degar lands, the forced conversions of Degar peoples, the continual violence perpetrated against Degar civilians, unlawful and arbitrary arrests of Degar tribal members, and the persistent harassment of Degar villages. The government of Vietnam cordons off Degar lands from the outside world as it blocks access to the Degar people it so readily persecutes. All the while the government of Vietnam exploits the natural resources of Degar lands by allowing Vietnam's elite to sell off it's lumber, lands for plantations, and controlling access to the water sources on Degar lands.

Continual persecution has led many Degar to unite in ways that have blurred the lines between the many different tribes of Degars. Vietnam's harsh treatment of the Degar has led to mass protests within Vietnam (always met with violent oppressive actions by the state) and mass protests in countries that Degar refugees have resettled in. In 2001 the Degar marched on provincial cities across the Central Highlands to demand the return of their ancestral homelands, basic religious freedoms, their basic human rights to be recognized, and ethnic recognition by the Vietnamese government. Since then the oppressive measures taken by Vietnam have only increased. 

Vietnam has sent large numbers of police and military into the Central Highlands in an attempt to seal off the region from outside eyes. Churches (homes used as churches) have been burned in retaliation for Degars preaching the Christian faith. Leaders of the Degar community have been rounded up and sentenced to lengthy prison sentences (many still awaiting trial while being kept in prison). Women and Degar youth are constantly harassed by the military as Degar families are kept as prisoners on their own lands. And the border with Cambodia is heavily monitored in an effort to keep the thousands of Degar refugees from fleeing Vietnamese oppressive rule. 

Meanwhile the government of Vietnam hides behind claims that the Degar are terrorists that are dead-set upon damaging national unity and breaking away from Vietnam. These are claims that have yet to be proven by a regime that forbids foreign journalists and aid workers from entering the Central Highlands. While the regime uses these claims to crackdown on Degar tribes (essentially stripping them of all basic human rights) it outright refuses any outside government to investigate the claims. 

So while Vietnam carries out what has all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing, the outside world is left to watch. While Vietnam behaves in much the same way as Burma does in the Arakan... the outside world once again ignores signs of what has the potential to become (if it has not already been) genocide.

Goodbye

Farewell To "The Perfect Man"
(Human Extinction series)

(Onge Women With Traditional Dress and Face Paint)

At the turn of the century the British were spreading like a plague upon the face of the earth. They brought development at the cost of the native peoples they colonized. Like the barbarians that overran Rome, the British came in waves as they fanned out to the four corners of the planet. This strategy of taking anything that didn't have a European flag planted in it (and at times even then) allowed the Brits to slaughter the indigenous tribes just like the Spaniards in South America. Taking anything they wanted while exploiting the people they claimed to be making civilized.

What had been done to the Americas for two centuries prior was now being done to India and Southeast Asia. The Europeans who had come before them were somehow made to look like saints as the British killed anything that would not fall in line. And when the locals outnumbered the invaders, Britain simply exploited local feuds to pit neighbor against neighbor... after all, it worked in America.

Upon first contact with the British the Onge, "En-iregale" in their own tongue (meaning perfect man), had numbered around 670 people. They were united and had a strong culture built upon centuries of living amongst the Andamanese islands. They were in tune with the cycles of the sea so much so that all 96 Onge members survived the 2004 tsunami by retreating to the highlands. They had a sustainable way of life that included hunting and fishing along with gathering of plants and edible roots.

Today the Onge people have just under 100 surviving members. They are confined to a tiny portion of their native lands in Indian built houses that are at best poorly built and rarely maintained. Disease and social ailments introduced by the British and Indians have left the Onge struggling to survive. Their hunting grounds are often kept off limits to them while poachers encroach upon their tiny scrap of land. The semi-nomadic practices they had once enjoyed as a society are now almost all but gone.

Some of the most humiliating results of their forced settlement (during the 1970's) has been the denial of their rights to hunt upon their own lands by the Indian government. Culturally it has always been traditional that an Onge man has not been allowed to marry until he has killed a wild boar. Now, with the persistent problem of poachers, the Onge men face humiliation or the need to break Indian imposed laws to culturally be accepted as a man.

For the women the settlement has meant being unable to provide for their children in the same ways their ancestors had. This has led to several issues including malnutrition amongst the Onge children. When the men are unable to hunt pigs or sea turtles the women are needed to gather food. But this has been increasingly difficult since large parts of the island are off limits to the Onge due to the Indian governments neglect of them.

Food has always been important to people. What we eat not only provides us nourishment but provides a mental link for us to remember people and places we grew up with. In the West we often call this "soul food". For the Onge people this comfort has been deprived to them by the British initially and currently the Indian government. The foods that their ancestors had taught them to survive off, to love, are now difficult for the Onge to obtain. Classic comfort foods for them are quickly becoming a memory.

All of these elements contribute strongly to the possibility of extinction for the Onge people rather plausible. Though the birth rate is often cited as improving amongst the Onge people the fact is that it is miserably low (drastically when compared to the rest of India). Then when coupled with an extremely unacceptably high infant mortality rate, the Onge people's hopes for survival are placed in doubt. This is only further exacerbated by the gender ratio is horrifically imbalanced (in 2006 there were 12 boys under 5 years old verses only six girls).

So now that over 100 years has passed since the Onge first met the rest of the world we are facing a point where we might just have to say farewell to "the perfect man". It is a sad reality that the world has allowed a people, of which we know so little about, to vanish from the face of the planet without a single tear, a word of remorse, or a goodbye.

In 2012 the world's citizens donated just over 90 million to World Wildlife Fund to help save animals from extinction. From their own pockets, these caring individuals sacrificed a small portion of their money to a cause that they cared deeply about (or at least enough to donate towards). Some may have been donating to the cause of saving polar bears, or pandas, or even the black rhinoceros. Others may have simply donated to help save animals in general. But what would they have donated had they been donating to UNICEF or other organization helping to save the Onge people from extinction?

Are human lives not worth more than that of a bear or elephant?

There are around 25,000 Asian Elephants alive in the world today.
There are around 4,850 Black Rhinoceroses alive in the world today
There are around 2,500 Bengal Tigers alive in the world today.
There are around 1,600 Giant Pandas alive in the world today.

Yet there are less than 100 Onge people still clinging to existence.

It shouldn't be difficult for people to realize that something in this comparison doesn't add up. We aren't comparing these people to animals in any way other than how the outside world views them. They were exploited for a century and kept out of sight when the world found it indecent to abuse them any further. All the while the Indian government has taken from them everything it has wanted while pushing them further towards oblivion with each passing year.

The main reason for this comparison is that of our own guilt in allowing the Onge people to perish. While we worry about tigers (allotted 15,818 sq miles of reserves in India) the Onge people are confined to 1/3 of their native lands. While we worry about the extinction of elephants in Asia the Onge people tiptoe toward their own extinction. And all the while we ignore the plight of our fellow man.



During January of 2012 we watched as the last Bo tribal member died. His final gift to the world was a sad and lonely song. In his words he spoke of watch the last great tree fall with a deafening crashing sound. One can only imagine that he was that tree and his voice was that final scream to a world too deaf to hear his peoples' pleas.

What will we do when the last Onge person passes away before our eyes?

Will we wait to hear yet another sad song?

Or will we scream before that day comes?

Want to learn more about this issue or contact the author?

Twitter: @alders_ledge

FaceBook: Alder's Ledge

Source Documents
*note not all sources listed

Cultural Survival
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/voices/mariana-budjeryn/survivors-tsunami

Survival International
http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/jarawa

UNESCO
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001876/187690e.pdf

UNICEF
http://www.unicef.org/rosa/media_2588.htm

Indigenous Policy Journal
http://indigenouspolicy.org/index.php/ipj/article/view/43/102

World Wildlife Fund
http://worldwildlife.org/about/financials

Brazil's Battle of Fallen Timbers

Awa Tribe Faces Extinction

(Young Awa boy in front of illegally torched forest. Image property of Peter Frey.)

The Awa people have been described as the world's most endangered ethnic group. For years now they have faced the tribulations of disease and illness that come from initial contact with the outside world. This has been compounded by the illegal logging and torching of their forest in Brazil's portion of the Amazon. When they dare to stand their ground the reality of fighting guns and fire with bows and spears always pits the Awa against annihilation. A simple bow and arrow after all is no match for the modern firearms that the illegal loggers use to push Awa deeper into the forest.

History has shown the Americas how this initial contact drama has played out in the past. When the Europeans came to the Americas the "virgin soil" epidemics spread a weapon far more fatal than their bullets could every be. Diseases, such as small pox, were utilized by Spanish, English, and French explorers who sought out gold, soil, and fame. These epidemics drastically culled the tribes as the white conquers continued to push westward. At times the biological warfare was all the Europeans needed to decimate given tribes.

In the case of the Awa this phenomenon associated with initial contact cannot be documented for sure. We do not know how many Awa are still left uncontacted by the outside world. Therefore we cannot determine just how many will perish as loggers, trains, and oil corporations push their way into the rainforest. Yet if we look at the long and tragic history of tribal extinction in both North and South America we can see that the few who will survive will be a minute percent of how many Awa currently remain alive.

Since the start of massive waves of illegal logging on Awa land the indigenous people have lost at least 30 percent of their forests. The loss of this timber contributes to reported hunger and starvation amongst Awa peoples. Without the cover of the forest the Awa people, who are nomadic and survive upon hunting and gathering, cannot find the game animals they traditionally hunt. If the animals the Awa need to survive are continually killed in massive amounts by outsiders (poachers and loggers alike) the Awa will suffer increased hunger. And with hunger comes desperation that could lead to more Awa being forced into contact with the outside world.

For native peoples in North America hunger was used as a weapon to keep the population of the tribes on the Great Plains under control. Herds of buffalo were slaughtered intentionally as the government and private enterprise offered incentive by buying the hides at inflated prices. Railroads were then pushed out across the plains and as a result the buffalo were killed off at an ever increasing rate. This led to starvation and the displacement of countless tribes. Those who could no longer find food were offered by the United States cultural extinction through the reservation process.

In Brazil the Awa are given limited legal protection. Their right to live in their homeland free and unexploited is left in the hands of a government that has struggled to muster the needed force to protect the Awa. Instead of offering reservations the Brazilian government has decided to attempt to isolate the Awa and keep their land free of invading settlers and outside companies. This however has been a failed policy.

Hunger and disease have been spread rapidly among the Awa people. With the Vale railway company pushing to double it's railway tracks through Awa territory the threat of both hunger and disease increases. Campaigns to protest and block the company from expanding their destructive exploitation of Awa lands have seen no real gains as the Brazilian government looks the other way.

In July of 2013 the Brazilian government did however deploy troops to the Awa lands where they were ordered to defend the rainforest at all cost. They were given permission to arrest loggers, illegal settlers, and poachers without restraint. Yet the campaign showed little effect as Awa were once again put in a position where likely contact with the outside world was drastically increased. The trade off in this push by Brazil was that logging camps, unlawful ranches, and poachers were temporarily pushed out while Awa were exposed to tanks, helicopters, and state troops.

So what is the threat of contact exactly? 

With contact comes the loss of cultural identities that many in the outside world find almost valueless. Like tribes around the world, the Awa stand to lose their traditional way of life, their language, and their social structure. The push with contacted tribes has always been one of forced assimilation and the cultural genocide of native ways of life. This has been evident in contacted native populations across the Amazon. Brazil being no exception to this tragic reality.

Contact with the outside world has also proven to be often more fatal than the world community first admits. From the 1980's, when Brazil first allowed the railway and mine constructions on Awa land, the workers for outside companies have committed countless massacres against Awa families. These atrocities have been committed in both efforts to push Awa out of their homes and to support other heinous crimes. Awa who are spotted by rail workers and loggers are therefore at risk of being shot on sight.

Cattle ranchers have further shown why Awa people cannot trust outside invaders who show up on their lands. When cattle ranchers burn large portions of land they expose Awa to countless risk. Not only are Awa lives put at risk the animals that Awa both keep and hunt are endangered. Any Awa who are spotted during such activities are ran off or shot by ranchers who view the Awa as obstacles and not humans.

Health, food, and freedom are all put at risk through contact. These are all three things that the Awa cannot get back once they adapt to life amongst the outsiders. The health care system that Brazil has put in place for the Awa would be laughable if it wasn't so tragically flawed. The food that Awa have enjoyed for generations cannot be supplemented by the outside world. And the freedom to maintain their way of life as the Awa people see fit is immediately lost when they surrender their lands to the state and corporations.

All of this has left the world with one major question... how much is the preservation of a peoples' culture worth?

Lumber, iron ore, and much coveted land are all on the table as corporations and private enterprise wring their hands while looking at the Awa people's forests. The greed of the developed world cannot be ignored as the world community watches the extinction of a native people. Though we have watched it happen time and time again, we must now ask ourselves if any of these things are worth the value of this priceless treasure... the Awa people and their culture.

If we do nothing to stop the exploitation of the Awa we will watch as a portion of humanity's diversity is driven into history. Once the Awa are gone they will take everything they know with them. Every aspect of their lives, every aspect of their language, every aspect of their society will be lost for the rest of time.

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Source Documents
(Note: not all sources listed)

Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1356933/Amazon-images-Pictures-Aw-tribe-work-play.html

Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/06/brazils-indigeneous-awa-tribe_n_1574374.html

Survival International
http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/9376
http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/9365