Our first field project this year was to investigate the situation involving the isolated and little-contacted indigenous people of the upper Paquiria and upper Serjali Rivers. Between mid-March and the end of April, we gathered information about the language and culture of these groups, their interactions with outsiders, and their present states of well-being.

For several years, we had been hearing stories which hinted that these people were suffering both illnesses and maltreatment due to their contact with outsiders, but little factual information was available. Our previous experiences with the Nanti on the Camisea River have shown us that many abuses of recently contacted people can easily be hidden due to the inaccessibility of the regions in which they live and the ulterior motives of the outsiders involved in the early stages of contact. Our experience has also shown the positive results of exposing these situations to the scrutiny of the rest of the outside world. Acting on Cabeceras Aid Project's commitment to promoting the autonomy and well-being of isolated and recently contacted indigenous groups, we chose to involve ourselves in the Paquiria situation. Our second motive was to resolve the conflicting claims about the ethnic and linguistic identity of these groups, to deepen our knowledge and understanding of the human diversity in this little-studied part of the Amazon Basin.

In late March, we traveled to the Matsigenka community of Nueva Luz, which sits on the Urubamba River at the mouth of the Paquiria River. During a brief stay there, we gathered information about the recent history of interactions between the people of Nueva Luz and the people living on the upper reaches of the Paquiria. Most of this contact has resulted from the intrusions of woodcutters from Nueva Luz, in their searches for the valuable timber found in the territories of the upriver groups. We later learned what the presence of these woodcutters has meant for the more isolated indigenous people, which we will discuss below.

In Nueva Luz we had the good fortune to meet Samuel Osega, the Matsigenka health worker who lives and works in that community. As soon as he learned of our plans to travel to the upper Paquiria, he asked to accompany us, in order to provide health care to the people he knew living in voluntary contact there. We were thrilled to have his help and expertise as part of our expedition. And for his part, Samuel has much interest in providing health care to the people living on the Paquiria, but he lacks the financial resources and medical supplies to do so regularly -- so he was equally glad to work with us.

We traveled up the Paquiria River to the small, recently formed settlement of Manyokiari, where we stayed for ten days with two families now living in voluntary contact with the outside world. With the medicines that we provided, Samuel was able to treat several ill people during our stay. The people of Manyokiari told us that they, along with the other more isolated groups in the region, had suffered greatly from the introduced illnesses brought by woodcutters, and that several of their relatives had died in recent years as a result. They also described being harassed, and pushed out of their former territories by woodcutters in order to free the land for logging. They asked Samuel and us for help in dealing with these new problems, and we promised to whatever we could.

During our stay, we determined that the people of the upper Paquiria River are Matsigenka in terms of both language and culture, with some differences due to their living in isolation for the last century or so. According to Fernando – who is the least shy of the Paquiria Matsigenka we met, and was interested in talking with us – his family and the other families on the upper Paquiria suffered badly during the intense slave raids in the area at the beginning of this century, and even up through the 1950s. As a result, these groups developed a way of life that was focused on hiding from outsiders. Now, these two families are interested in having access to metal tools, pots, clothing, and other innovations from the modern world, and as a result have settled within reach of Nueva Luz. But several other families, Fernando said, are not interested in contact with outsiders; for these families, their negative experiences with woodcutters outweigh the benefits of access to outside innovations. These families are still living in careful seclusion on the smallest tributaries of the Paquiria and Serjali Rivers. Despite their intense shyness, the Matsigenka at Manyokiari were glad to have us visit them, and to receive the aid we had brought for them. Their trust in Samuel extended to us, and they made us welcome among them. We agreed to come back next summer with Samuel, and to bring more aid, especially the tools and medicine they requested.

From the Paquiria River, we traveled to the nearby Serjali River, to investigate the stories of isolated groups there; as Fernando explained, these people are in some sense relatives of the Matsigenka families of the Paquiria. The numerous stories in the region confirm that there are people living on the upper reaches of the Serjali, but so far they have avoided extended direct contact with any of the other indigenous people or woodcutters in the area. Our research leads us to believe that these people are also isolated Matsigenka, similar in culture, language and history to those on the Paquiria.

Cabeceras Aid Project's 1999 Paquiria Expedition revealed that the recently contacted peoples of the upper Paquiria River are suffering deaths and frequent outbreaks of illness due to contact with outsiders; in addition, they have been displaced and relocated in order to serve the interests of outsiders, particularly woodcutters. Further, the still isolated groups of the region are extremely vulnerable to these same problems should they experience extended contact.

Cabeceras Aid Project is addressing these problems using two related tactics. The first is to make the details of the situation known to the communities, governmental agencies, indigenous rights organizations and private institutions involved in the region; we are presently completing an extensive report to this end. The second is to maintain an active engagement with the groups that are living in contact, in order to provide them with material and medical aid, and to provide a connection to the outside world that is responsive to their needs and desires, in order to assist them as they navigate the difficult period of early contact.

1999 Fieldwork: The Montetoni Project

Our second field project this year took us back to the Nanti communities of Montetoni and Malanksia on the upper Camisea River, where we worked from mid-May until the end of July. We made substantial progress in a number of areas, particularly health education and our understanding of the Nanti language. We also did monitoring work on the present school in Malanksia, and deepened our knowledge of Nanti history.

The most important task we had set for ourselves this year was to work with the Nanti to develop a strategy to combat malaria, which has been a serious problem in the Camisea Nanti communities in the last two years. Prior to the wet season of 1997, the Nanti had no experience with malaria, but unfortunately in 1997 a visitor introduced this disease into the community of Malanksia, and it spread from there to Montetoni. In the wet season of 1998, the Nanti suffered from malaria for almost two months and several children died before a team of health workers arrived from the distant government health post.

Since it is very likely that malaria will strike the Nanti again this wet season (between November and February), we resolved to provide the Nanti with the skills and medicine necessary to combat this illness. So on our way to Montetoni, we sought the approval of the government doctor at the health post responsible for the region to train two Nanti in the use of anti-malaria medicines. Though he was skeptical that we would or could succeed, he gave us his permission to try – and even gave us more anti-malaria medicines to give to the Nanti.

Once in Montetoni, we discussed the problem of malaria with the Nanti, and offered to teach them to treat the illness themselves. The community chose two young men to learn to use the medicines, and these two enthusiastically began working with us every day. Interestingly, one of these young men is Tyeherina, who went downriver with us in 1997 for tuberculosis treatment; he is now healthy and has two small children and an expanding role in the leadership of Montetoni.

Because no Nanti can yet count or read, we had to be innovative in our teaching methods, so we created picture-diagrams that represent the appropriate courses of treatment for people of different ages. After three intensive weeks of working with us, the two young men not only understood the treatment – they had it fully memorized! Since the Nanti do not employ writing to 'remember' things, their memories are phenomenal in comparison to ours. Now, ironically, we hope they never need to use this new knowledge – but we are confident that they are well-prepared should another outbreak of malaria occur.

Looking toward the future, at the end of our training work the two young men expressed their interest in learning to use other medicines to treat other introduced illnesses – such as pneumonia – that often afflict their community. Through the process of learning to use anti-malaria medicines, they realized that they were perfectly capable of learning to use introduced medicines, contrary to the prejudices of other outsiders who judge them as unable to understand. In these last years they have also come to realize that since they live so far from the regional health post, the only way they will ever have consistent means to combat introduced diseases is if they manage this medical care themselves.

It was also gratifying for us to see that our previous health education work in Montetoni was bearing fruit. Perhaps you recall that one of our main goals in 1998 was to construct Montetoni's first latrine, in an effort to address the problem of the diarrhea outbreaks in the community that were killing several children every year. After digging that first latrine, we explained how using the latrine could help diminish the spread of diarrhea within the community – but of course it was up to them to use it or not. So when we arrived in Montetoni this year, we cautiously inquired into the fate of that first latrine. The Nanti answered by showing us that they had built seven more! They told us that, indeed, they had stopped having serious outbreaks of diarrhea since they began using the latrines. We found that two latrines had been constructed in Malanksia as well. We offer this as strong evidence of the Nantis' commitment to engaging the issues of health care in their own communities.

Finally, we are pleased to tell you that the school teacher who was causing the Nanti so much trouble and unhappiness over the last seven years has fled from the upper Camisea River. Although we are very concerned that he may continue his abusive behavior in another native community, it is an immense relief that he has left the upper Camisea – and a great liberation according to the Nanti themselves. Now that he has left, many Nanti have begun to speak about the appalling manner in which this man treated them. We continue to work with other involved parties to prevent this teacher from being reassigned to another native community – an effort in which the Summer Institute of Linguistics has played a crucial role. But this effort is a difficult one, for very complex political and logistical reasons. Wish us luck!

Also, please see our complete September 1999 Update

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