Tagaeri

The Tagaeri are a clan of Huaorani people living in Yasuni National Park, at the Ecuadorian Amazon Basin, named (in Wao-Terero, the Huaorani language) for their association with the warrior Taga. While they share a cultural and linguistic heritage with other Huaorani, they have continued to live the nomadic lifestyle once common to their people and have been fiercely resistant, making them one of the so-called uncontacted peoples of the world. In addition to Tagaeri the area is home to 3 other uncontacted groups: the Taromenane, the Oñamenane, and the Huiñatare.

The clan separated from other Huaorani in 1968, led by Taga, during a period of intense inter-clan violence and have since lived in comparative isolation. Attempts at contact by outside peoples have often been violently rebuffed, beginning with a series of attacks on the colonial settlement of Coca in reprisal for the attempted evangelization by the Summer Institute of Linguistics. The most recent such violence was the 1987 spearing of missionaries Alejandro Labaca and Inés Arango.

Contact with other Huaorani has remained at a low level, often marked by bursts of inter-clan violence, as in 1993 and 2003.

It is estimated that there are perhaps only 20-30 surviving Tagaeri, although these numbers are uncertain. Together with the Taromenane they make up the two last known indigenous groups living in voluntary isolation in Ecuador. On February 15, 2008, authorities in Ecuador agreed to investigate reports that five tribespeople belonging to the Taromenane and Tagaeri tribes were killed by illegal loggers.

The Tagaeri tribesmen are a group of ancient, ferocious warriors. They live in and around the Yasuni National Park, at the Ecuadorian Amazonian Basin. They have been living in the Amazon, since the origins of their tribe, yet they are in a life-threatening situation, affecting the future of the tribe- due to deforestation and poachers. They are very sensitive and cautious to remain untouched from the outside world and live their lies in a primitive manner. There are organisations attempting to protect the few (around 20-30) people of this tribe alive. The Tagaeri are afraid of outsiders and, as a consequence, have yet to agree to have contact with modern civilisations. Due to the threat of deforestation and a breakdown of their tribe, the Tagaeri will go to the supreme extremities to protect their peoples. For example, the body of a 37 year old, rare wood poacher, named Luis Castellanos, was found in March, in the Yasuni area- with 9 iron-headed spears, jutting out of his stomach. The killers, of-course, were presumed to be the Tagaeri. Another, devastating threat posed to the Tagaeri by other civilisations, is disease. The immune systems of the Tagaeri (as would be expected) are weak, thus they would easily be wiped out from a common disease or illness, if there was any contact with the outside world. Even though there is this threat, a vaccine or treatment from doctors outside the tribe, would be violating their tradition; therefore, they can not afford to have contact from tourists or poachers- or anyone, for that matter. There are a great number of illegal loggers, smugglers, settlers moving in there are and oil companies; drilling ever closer to the ‘untouchable’ eco-logical zone. The Tagaeri live by hunting and fishing, and have done so for 35 years (when they broke away from the Huaroani tribe). The Huaroani tribe have made peace with the rest of Ecuador, and now even, rather ironically, work with loggers and oil companies. Due to this, the Tagaeri declared bloody war with them. There have been massacres (e.g. in 2003) and even illegal loggers have been reported to have killed the Tagaeri.

External links

• Adriana Reyes y Fernando Villavicencio, Tagaeri, resistencia de un pueblo
• Llacta! Salvemos el Yasuní