The FUNAI, or the Fundação Nacional do Índio, is the Brazilian governmental organization in charge of protecting and advocating for Brazil’s indigenous populations. Created in 1967, the agency not only helps provide education and basic services to tribes, but also promotes the study and understanding of tribal populations and indigenous culture. Also, one of the agency’s most important functions is to help maintain and defend indigenous reservations.

Recently, FUNAI published a study showing that there are over seventy indigenous groups with little to no contact with the outside world, the large majority of them in the Amazon.

Read the article about FUNAI and check out the map from the study. Then, take a look at this video interview of Mercio Gomes, one of the leading experts on Brazilian indigenous groups  who also used to be the head of FUNAI. He’s a trained sociologist and continues to advocate for indigenous rights.

Brasil tem mais de 70 grupos indígenas isolados, aponta Funai – Globo Amazonia

Excerpt: “O Brasil tem 76 grupos indígenas vivendo em situação de isolamento ou contatados pela primeira vez recentemente. Ao menos 28 tribos isoladas já foram confirmadas pela Fundação Nacional do Índio (Funai), mas o órgão ainda estuda mais de 40 pontos em que há possibilidade de encontrar povos isolados.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVeXIT5c_wU