Akuntsu people

The Akuntsu are a Native American nation which consists of only five people who live together with the only three survivors of the Kanoê - people in Omere in the southwest of the state of Rondônia, Brazil. " Akuntsu " means in the language of the neighboring people of the canoe " The other Indians ."

The Akuntsu are hunters and live in communal houses made ​​of straw, the Malocas. In addition, they build in their gardens cassava and maize, gathering wild fruits and catch fish. The Akuntsu produce wooden flutes, which they use for dances and rituals.

The final decimation of the tribe goes back to massacre, which occurred particularly in the 1970s and 80s and were perpetrated by Viehranchern to the people of the Akuntsu and Kanoê. Although the last survivors of the Akuntsu of the South American Indians protection organization FUNAI a small reserve was provided, on whose territory they can live their traditions freely, they still have big problems with ranchers who are inadmissible lay claim their territory and thus endanger its existence strong. For this reason, the Akuntsu are very suspicious of strangers. One of the five members of the people is already over seventy years old.