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Leap of faith

Ely explorers paddle past political tensions and return with stories from jungle tribe

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 7/24/14

RIO ROOSEVELT, BRAZIL— Political tensions eased just in time to allow Ely area adventurers Dave Freeman and Paul Schurke to complete their retracing of Teddy Roosevelt’s famous expedition down …

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Leap of faith

Ely explorers paddle past political tensions and return with stories from jungle tribe

Posted

RIO ROOSEVELT, BRAZIL— Political tensions eased just in time to allow Ely area adventurers Dave Freeman and Paul Schurke to complete their retracing of Teddy Roosevelt’s famous expedition down the remote Amazonian river that still bears his name. And they found an unexpected anniversary celebration awaiting them at the native village where they ended their weeks-long journey earlier this month.

It put an unexpected, but fortuitous, twist on the expedition, which started with eight team members, including six Brazilians, but ended with just Freeman and Schurke traveling into the heart of a remote section of the Amazon controlled by the Cinta Larga tribe.

“The Cinta Larga connection was really a highlight of the trip,” said Schurke, who is now back home near Ely.

But that connection almost never happened. Political tensions between native tribes and the Brazilian government are routine, said Schurke. “Tensions mounted again when we got there, over of all things, the World Cup and the $14 billion the government spent on it,” said Schurke. Tribal officials from across Brazil, some armed with bows and arrows, converged on Brasilia, the capital, to protest proposed changes to their land status, unrelated to the soccer competition. They then joined other demonstrators, who were opposed to the World Cup expenditures, and the protests soon became violent.

Freeman and Schurke had expected to start their epic canoe trek at a small Cinta Larga village near the headwaters of the Rio Roosevelt, but outside factors got in the way. “We finally got to the headwaters village when all hell broke loose,” said Schurke. Many of the Cinta Larga chiefs who had originally sanctioned their trip were detained in Brasilia, and with anger running high, the team changed their plans and canoed a lower section of the river outside the Cinta Larga territory.

By the time they completed that stretch, the political turmoil in Brazil had calmed, at least temporarily, and when Freeman and Schurke got the greenlight from a Cinta Larga chief, they made the decision to canoe the upper stretch.

For the two, it was a leap of faith, one that they would take without their Brazilian teammates, who headed back to Sao Paulo after leaving the two Minnesotans at the river headwaters.

The Cinta Larga are renowned among the Amazon’s 300 tribes for their fierce defense of their traditional homeland, which is now a protected reserve encompassing some 10,000 square miles of dense jungle. The two explorers were warned that the Cinta Larga could well consider them intruders. “However, they treated us like family,” said Freeman. “The kids and elders alike were keen to show us their community and share native gifts and meals with us.”

They arrived at the Cinta Larga’s main village, which is home to about 800 of the tribe’s roughly 1,300 members, during a centennial celebration. The village, which is named Roosevelt, was apparently founded the same year as the former president’s famous expedition. Freeman and Schurke stayed four days, residing in a small vacant house that they shared with a family that was also visiting at the same time.

A culture both strange and familiar

Even though the tribe’s first real contact with the outside world didn’t come until 1971, evidence of the modern world was present at the village, according to Schurke. While a few families still lived in thatched huts, most now resided in small cinderblock houses, with metal roofs. A large generator ran each evening to provide village residents with a few hours of electricity. The village kids wore Nike shorts and colorful t-shirts, and they often clustered outside the home of the village chief, who has a wi-fi connection to the Internet, provided by the Brazilian government. But mostly, the kids gathered around a sandy beach to play soccer, the national obsession.

The villagers subsist mostly by hunting, primarily with bow and arrow, and through small agricultural plots carved out of the jungle, where they grow manioc, a starchy vegetable, and jungle fruits like papaya. “Mostly, they eat a lot of meat,” said Schurke, mostly capybara and other jungle animals.

Surprisingly, the tribe has no experience with watercraft, even canoes, said Schurke. “They were fascinated by our canoe. They had never seen one before.”

“Boats are not part of their cultural framework at all,” said Schurke. “ And we didn’t see any evidence of fishing.”

While such cultural oddities were remarkable, Schurke said many other aspects of the Cinta Larga society were familiar. “The school was the center of the community,” he said. Classes are offered for children during the day and for adults at night.

“There was really good energy around the school, and the teachers were very excited about what’s going on in their communities.”

The tribe is also dealing with the effects of the mineral wealth in their region, which is believed to contain large reserves of gold and diamonds. While the Cinta Larga have dealt harshly with some wildcat prospectors, the tribe is allowing a limited amount of highly controlled exploration on their lands, to get a better picture of the scale of their potential reserves.

Schurke said the Cinta Larga seemed quite healthy, since their active lifestyle leaves them physically fit and obesity is virtually unknown.

He said the tribe’s isolation may be one reason for the lack of alcohol, which he said is typically common, and often culturally destructive,in many native communities in Brazil. “Both Dave and I were impressed by that. This was the first time we had worked with a tribe where alcohol did not play a role. There was no sign of it, even though they were having a celebration while we were there. All the signs were that they were on a pretty healthy cultural track.”

The Cinta Larga have weathered some cultural storms, however, over the years. First contact was particularly damaging, said Schurke, since it introduced previously unknown diseases, like smallpox, and large numbers of tribe members died. “The father of the family that joined us in the abandoned hut remembers first contact. He was eight at the time and many of his close relatives died soon after,” said Schurke.

The cultural divide within Brazil can be almost disorienting, said Schurke. “Brazil is such an amazing contrast. The east coast is all megalopolis, with high tech and heavy industry. Then in the interior, there’s hardly one person for a square mile and you’re back to the Stone Age.”

While development and deforestation have brought a host of environmental challenges to the Amazon, Schurke said the Brazilian government has since taken major steps to reduce illegal logging, particularly of high value tropical hardwoods, such as mahogany. “We didn’t see any fresh signs of deforestation,” said Schurke.

Amazon, Dave Freeman, Paul Schurke, Canoe, Roosevelt, Voyage, Brazil, Ely