As a policy, Brazil does not actively seek contact with these groups but instead establishes protected and monitored areas

A young man from an isolated Indigenous tribe in the Brazilian Amazon briefly emerged from the rainforest before voluntarily returning to his people less than a day later. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

In a rare encounter, a young man from an isolated Indigenous tribe approached a riverine community in Brazil’s Amazon, according to the country’s Indigenous affairs agency and local witnesses.

By Kevin Damasio Mariazinha Baré spent her childhood bathing and playing in the Upper Negro River. Born and raised on the triple border where Brazil meets Colombia and Venezuela, she is now worried about the waters of one of the Amazon’s main rivers.

Meanwhile, Brazil’s Fundação Nacional dos Povos Indígenas (National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples, or Funai) estimates around 100 uncontacted Indigenous groups still live deep in the Amazon rainforest.

Reportedly, the villagers believed that the man from the uncontacted Indigenous Amazon tribe contacted them to ask for fire.