BRASILIA, Aug 30, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - The last of his people, a Brazilian
indigenous man known only as "the man of the hole" has been found dead,
decades after the rest of his uncontacted tribe were killed off by ranchers
and illegal miners, officials said.

Having lived in complete isolation for 26 years, the man -- whose real name
was never known to the outside world -- was found in a hammock in a hut in
the Tanaru indigenous territory in Rondonia state on the border with Bolivia
on August 23, Brazil's National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) said in a
statement.

Since losing everyone he knew, the man had refused all contact with the
outside world and supported himself by hunting and raising crops. His
nickname derived from his habit of digging deep holes inside the huts he
built, possibly to trap animals in but also to hide inside.

He lived in an indigenous territory surrounded by vast cattle ranches and
under constant threat from illegal miners and loggers in one of the most
dangerous parts of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, according to Survival
International.

Authorities did not comment on the cause of the man's death, nor his age,
which wasn't known, but said "there were no signs of violence or struggle."

They also found no evidence of the presence of anyone else in his home or
around it.

"Everything indicates that the death was from natural causes," said FUNAI, a
government agency under the justice ministry that is tasked with handling
indigenous affairs.

Local media reported that the man's body had been covered in macaw feathers,
prompting one expert to speculate that he had known he was about to die.

The man was believed to have been alone since the remaining members of his
small tribe were killed in the mid-1990s by illegal loggers and miners
seeking to exploit the tribal area.

Rights groups said that the majority of the tribe had been killed in the
1970s when ranchers moved into the area, cutting down the forest and
attacking the inhabitants.

"With his death, the genocide of this indigenous people is complete," said
Fiona Watson, Survival's director of investigation, who visited the Tanaru
territory in 2004.

"It really was genocide: the deliberate elimination of an entire people by
ranchers hungry for land and wealth," she added.

According to the most recent government data, there are some 800,000
indigenous people belonging to more than 300 distinct groups living in
Brazil, a country of 212 million.

More than half live in the Amazon and many of those are under threat from
illegal exploitation of natural resources that they rely on for their
survival.

According to FUNAI, there are 114 records of isolated indigenous groups in
Brazil, although that number varies.

Under Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, Amazon deforestation
reached a record level in the first half of 2022.

The president, who is trailing in polls ahead of this year's elections, has
encouraged mining and farming activity in protected areas, sparking anger
among environmentalists.