#Remote tribesman uses arrow to kill Brazil indigenous expert

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Rieli Franciscato, 56, died Wednesday in the Seringueiras region, a remote municipality in the northern state of Rondoni.
Alberto Veiga/Reuters

A top expert on indigenous peoples in Brazil was killed by an arrow that hit him in the chest after being fired by a member of an isolated tribe in the Amazon rainforest, according to reports.

Rieli Franciscato, 56, died Wednesday in the Seringueiras region, a remote municipality in the northern state of Rondonia, according to the Brazilian government’s indigenous affairs office, FUNAI, where he worked.

FUNAI declined to say how he was killed, but witnesses said he was shot with an arrow as he monitored recent appearances by a tribe known as the “Cautario River isolated group,” according to photojournalist Gabriel Uchida, Agence France-Presse reported.

When Rieli’s team faced a barrage of arrows, they ran to take shelter behind a vehicle, but he was hit in the chest, witnesses said.

“He cried out, pulled the arrow from his chest, ran 50 meters and collapsed, lifeless,” a police officer who accompanied the expedition said on social media.

The tribe is “known as a peaceful group,” Uchida told AFP in an email.

“The last time they appeared in the region was in June. … It was a larger group, very peaceful. They even left presents at someone’s house,” he said.

“This time, there were just five armed men — a war party. That means something must have happened to make them seek ‘revenge,’” Uchida added.

Such groups have lashed out violently when illegal miners or poachers encroach on their land at times, said Uchia, adding that there were some reports of such activity in the area.

Rieli led an operation called the Uru Eu Wau Wau Ethno-Environmental Protection Front, whose mission was to protect isolated groups, AFP reported.

The Brazilian Amazon is home to at least 100 isolated tribes, according to indigenous rights group Survival International.

“Rieli dedicated his life to the indigenous cause. He had more than three decades of service, and leaves an immense legacy for the protection of these peoples,” said FUNAI official Ricardo Lopes Dias.

With Post wires