The “lost” tribe of indigenous Amazonians is accused of mass murder

It was April 7, 2004 and Nacoça Pio was one of the first to know about the bloodbath. As leader of the Cinta-Larga—an indigenous tribe that has lived in isolation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest for centuries—Pio knew that tensions were high between his people and the white diamond miners who made their fortunes in their backyard.

The bodies of 26 miners were found near their reserve. Some were shot with arrows, others murdered with guns or beaten with clubs. “Two corpses were missing their eyeballs, leading to rumors that the warriors had covered the victims’ eyes with honey to attract ants and bees,” writes Alex Cuadros in his new book, “When We Sold God’s Eye: Diamonds, Murder.” . , and a Clash of Worlds in the Amazon” (Grand Central, out December 3).

During a trial in November 2023, prosecutors claimed that “the indigenous people who committed these acts wanted to stop others from mining diamonds on their land.” And Pio was one of the main suspects.

The massacre was shocking, but not a complete surprise. Since 1999, the Stream of the Blackflies, a mining operation in the region rumored to be worth $20 million a month, had become a powder keg. It was only a matter of time before tensions between the natives and the white fortune seekers would lead to violence.

Pio was dubbed the “diamond baron” by the media and “he was rumored to own three villas and a fleet of imported trucks with white chauffeurs,” writes Cuadros. “Some of it, he acknowledged, was true.” But while he shared some of the blame for the uncontrolled greed, Pio couldn’t help but wonder: “Was it greedy to desire the things that white men had taught him?”

Before the white treasure hunters arrived, his people of almost 2,000 people had no experience of the civilized world. They had never seen calendars or clocks. They knew nothing about money or wealth. As Pio once put it: “When we wanted something, nuts, honey or fruit, we looked for it in the forest.”

The Cinta-Larga – who, according to legend, accompanied an Amazon expedition led by Theodore Roosevelt at the beginning of the 20th century – were also cannibals, at least until the 1970s. The warriors “ate everything, even breaking the bones to suck out the marrow,” writes Cuadros. When an anthropologist asked what human flesh tasted like, they compared it to the “dark, delicious flesh of the tapir,” Cuadros writes. White men, on the other hand – whom the Cinta-Larga first encountered in the 1920s – were “far too salty.”

There was no such thing as property in the world for the Cinta-Larga, a tribe with barely 2,000 members. Even the metal tools that white men brought with them, like swords or machetes, fell to the ground after each use and were discovered by someone else. The diamonds that would soon make the area a magnet for prospectors were largely ignored. Once a group of women found a stone so large, “they said it looked like Ngurá inhakíp – ‘God’s eye,'” Cuadros writes. “It would have been worth an almost unimaginable sum. But they had no use for it and threw it back into the water.”

The white visitors not only brought gifts; They also brought diseases. In 1971, when Pio was still a child, his father Mankalu contracted measles while visiting an outsider camp, and soon he and most of Pio’s family were dead. It was a turning point for the young Indian. “With no one to turn to, Pio discovered that he could remain calm in the face of extreme circumstances and take the initiative when others would not,” Cuadros writes.

Pio found a new village to call home and soon proved he had something valuable to offer. He had a flair for leadership and a charming personality that won over whites and Indians alike. With his knowledge of Portuguese, he became a kind of foreign minister for the tribe. “If there is a problem, I will take care of the white people,” Pio told his friends.

As an adult, Pio became a natural leader, albeit a completely different type than his warrior father. “Although (Pio) was not afraid of violence, he wanted to avoid it,” Cuadros writes. “He tried to go through official channels in the hope of keeping the government on his side.”

The trouble began in 1999 when Luca Pintado, an eccentric “albino white” man in his 80s who spoke with a distinctive accent, arrived in the land of Cinta Larga in search of diamonds. There had long been rumors of hidden riches in the Amazon jungle, but Pio never fully believed the stories.