The railroad that connects the mine to the port of Sao Luis runs near Awá territory. In the 1980s the World Bank, yes the World Bank, approved the Great Carajás Project, an iron ore mining complex in the Carajás Mountains. Where did these logging companies and cattle ranchers come from? In reality, more than 30% of their legally protected territory has been demolished by illegal logging companies and cattle ranchers.

The Awá, a hunter-gatherer tribe, live peacefully uncontacted in the Brazilian Amazon where they hunt with six-meter bows and sleep in ikahas, hammocks made of strong palm fibers. The five remaining members are either close relatives or too old to bear children, and since custom does not allow outsiders to marry in, the Akuntsu culture will die with the remaining five. In 2009, Ururú, sister of the surviving shaman Konibú, died of old age. Babakyho was killed in 2000 when a tree fell over in a storm demolishing her maloca.

Later that same year, FUNAI made first contact with the Akuntsu and have maintained a presence in the area ever since. Investigating claims that the Akuntsu existed, FUNAI found in 1995 an entire maloca (a communal house) bulldozed and covered with earth. Then, around 1990, ranchers massacred thousands of Akuntsu leaving only five surviving women and two men. Since it was illegal to occupy indigenous territory, ranchers claimed the Akuntsu did not exist, so economic development could continue. They quickly turned the lush jungle into soy fields and cattle pastures. In the 1980s the construction of highway BR-364 through Rondonia invited loggers, farmers, and cattle ranchers to the region.

Uncontacted awa tribe