Indigenous Man is 'Final Member of Isolated Amazon Tribe'

Video footage has emerged of an indigenous man in Rondônia, Brazil, who is believed to have become the sole member of his tribe after the others were murdered more than 20 years ago.

The clip, captured by Brazilian government indigenous agency Funai (Fundação Nacional do Índio) shows the man attempting to chop down a tree with an axe.

The video was uploaded to the agency’s official YouTube channel on Wednesday, July 18. In an accompanying press release, an agency spokesman said that since the 1980s, isolated indigenous people came under repeated attacks as farms and illegal operations were established in Rondônia.

“After the last farmer attack in late 1995, the group that was probably already small (from reports, the local staff believed to be six people) became one person,” he said. “The guilty were never punished.”

Agency workers, who work to protect the rights of Brazil’s indigenous people, have tried leaving seeds and tools for the man to use. Credit: Fundação Nacional do Índio via Storyful