The Akurio are an
Indigenous people
There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...
living in
Suriname
Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...
. They are
hunter-gatherers
A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, especially w ...
, who were first contacted in 1938 when chanced upon by a survey party led by Willem Ahlbrinck. Ahlbrinck was on a mission to find the Ojarikoelé tribe, also known as Wajarikoele, but could not find them. A little over thirty years later in 1969, they were rediscovered by Ivan Schoen, a Protestant missionary. The people were nomadic and had a predilection for honey-gathering and the stone tools they had were typically employed for this endeavor.
missionaries
A missionary is a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Miss ...
persuaded the tribe to live in Pelelu Tepu.
Name
The Akurio are also called Akoerio, Akuliyo, Akuri, Akurijo, Akuriyo, Oyaricoulet, Triometesem, Triometesen, Wama, or Wayaricuri people.[
]
Population
40% to 50% of the Akurio died within two years after contact in 1969.
The population was estimated to be 50 in 2000. It fell to 40 by 2012.[
]
Language
The group used the Akurio language, also known as Akuriyó, until the late 20th century, when they began using the Trio language. Schoen had left a number of Trio Indian guides with the Akurio after their first meeting.[ The last native speaker is believed to have died in the first decade of the 2000s, at which time only 10 people were estimated to have Akuriyó as a second language. By 2012, only two semi-speakers remained.][ In December 2018, Sepi Akuriyó, one of the last surviving speakers of Akuriyó, went missing when a small plane carrying eight people disappeared during a flight over the ]Amazon rainforest
The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...
. A search and rescue operation was called off after two weeks.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akurio People
Indigenous peoples in Suriname
Indigenous peoples of the Guianas
Hunter-gatherers of South America
Ethnic groups in Suriname