The sole surviving member of an uncontacted Indigenous group in Brazil has been found dead, the country’s Indigenous protection agency, Funai, said Saturday.
In a statement, Funai reported with “immense regret” that the unnamed man, who was best known as the “Man of the Hole,” was found dead in a hammock outside his hut on Aug. 23. He earned the “Man of the Hole” nickname because it is believed he spent extensive hours hiding or sheltering in pits he dug into the earth, The Guardian reported.
The Man of the Hole’s death is believed to be due to natural causes, Funai said.
The Guardian said the Man of the Hole, who was about 60 years old, had placed brightly coloured feathers around his body in the hammock. Officials now believe this is because the man prepared for his death.
He lived in isolation for about 26 years in the Tanaru Indigenous area in the state of Rondônia, which borders Bolivia. He was the sole survivor of his community, whose ethnicity is not known. According to the BBC, the man’s remaining six tribe members were killed in 1995. The Man of the Hole had been living in solitude ever since.
The majority of the tribe is thought to have been killed by land-seeking ranchers in 1970.
Funai had been monitoring the Man of the Hole since 1996, though very little is known about him.
In his lifetime, he resisted all attempts to contact him. He was even known to lay traps and shoot arrows at anyone who approached his territory.
Police are investigating his death, though there have been no signs of trespassing on his territory, and nothing in his hut had been taken or disturbed. His body will undergo forensic examination by the federal police, according to Funai.
Survival International, an Indigenous rights organization, tweeted about the Man of the Hole’s death, writing that “his people’s genocide is complete.”
There are at least 30 Indigenous groups likely living in Brazil’s jungles, according to multiple sources.
Land invasion and resource theft on Indigenous territory has tripled since right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019. In 2021, 305 invasions occurred on Indigenous land across 22 states in Brazil, compared with only 109 cases the year prior.
Bolsonaro has made calls to develop the land of Indigenous Peoples in Brazil, claiming any natural resources there should be used to benefit Brazil’s economic welfare.
Brazilian Indigenous rights advocacy organizations have now called for the Man of the Hole’s land to be preserved for archeological and anthropological study in the area. The preservation, according to the organizations, would be to “remind everyone of the tragedy of the Indigenous genocide — so that it never happens again.”
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