May. 13, 2006 - 21:09 MDT

IN A STRANGER LAND

It feels as if I am in a musuem of the weird at times. For instance, an article in this morning's Rocky Mountain News by Juan Forero of The New York Times under the Rocky's heading of THE INSIDE STORY, herein quoted in full:

AMAZON CLAN LEAVES STONE AGE LIFE BEHIND

SAN JOSE DEL GUAVIARE, COLOMBIA -- "Since time immemorial, the Nukak-Maku have lived a Stone Age life, roaming across hundreds of miles of isolated and pristine Amazon jungle, killing monkeys with blowguns and scouring the forest floor for berries."

"But recently and rather mysteriously, a group of nearly 80 wandered out ot the wilderness, half-naked, a gaggle of children and pet monkeys in tow, and decalred themselves ready to join the modern world."

"We do not want to go back," said one man, who uses the sole name Ma-be and who arrived with the others at this outpost in southern Colombia in March. "We want to stay near town. We can plant our own food. In the meantime, the town can help us."

"While it is not known for sure why they left the jungle, what is clear is that the Nukak's experience as nomads and hunter-gatherers has left them wholly unprepared for the world they have just entered."

"The Nukak have no concept of money, of property. of the role of government or even of the existence of a country called Colombia. They have no government identification cards, making them nonentities to Colombia's bureaucracy."

"The Nukak don't know what they've got themselves into," said Dr. Javier Maldonado, 27, a physician who has been working with them."

"When asked if the Nukak wre concerned about the future, Belisario, the only one in the group who had been to the world beyond their traditional range and who spoke Spanish, seemed perplexed, less by the word than by the concept."

"The future," he said, "what's that ?"

"One of the perhaps few dozen indigenous communities living in relative seclusion in the Amazon basin, the Nukak have, in dribs and drabs, gone beyone the borders of their jungle world only since 1988, just as the world has intermittently found them."

In 2003, dozens of Nukak left the wilderness and arrived at San Jose del Guaviare, saying Colombia's relentless civil war had encroached on their reserve and forced them to seek safety. Perhaps as many as 250 l; ive in settlements around the town, about as many as anthropologists suspect are still alive in the wilderness."

"What little is known about this latest group of arrivals is that they abandoned the Nukak National Park, which is nearly half the size of New Jersey, in the state of Guaviare."

"They do not provide much detail about why they left. They just say that "the Green Nukak," a possible reference to Marxist guerillas, who wear camouflage, told them to leave."

"Colombian officials said they wonder if farmers growing coca, the crop used to make cocaine, also may have displaced the Nukak."

"Another theory is that another Nukak clan pushed this one out."

"But even as aid for the group arrives, the donors are well aware that the largess could doom the Nukak to a life of dependency, ensuring not only that they never return home, but also that they never learn how to live in their new world."

"People want to protect them," said Xismena Martmnez, who oversees aid to the Nukak for San Jose. "To help them, we give them food and clothes. Thnat doesn't help them at all in the long term."

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Life, not just human life is coming out from the wildernesses since the depletion of forests and the growth of various kinds of development have gained speed the world over it seems to me. More deer and bear seem to be showing up in city limits around here, because we have invaded their natural habitat and built houses and fences, etc.

It makes me sad to think of the tribulations the Nukak will go through, if they eventually survive as a group, and the unhappiness if they become lone persons in a civilized world.

History tells the tale of many parts of the world and their sorry efforts to tame the wild "aborigines" of each individual nation -- what ever name has been used for the native population that has been displaced by Modern Man.

The disappearing rain forests caused by us and all the various civilized things we think we are doing has an effect on the wild life of the country involved, man or / and beast.

These are just the latest of the strangers IN A STRANGER LAND . . . . . . . . .

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