The Curaray River (also called the Ewenguno River or Rio Curaray) is a river in eastern

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

and

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. It is a tributary of the Napo River, which is part of the

Amazon basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributary, tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries ...

. The land along the river is home to several indigenous people groups, including the

Kichwa Kichwa (, , also Spanish ) is a Quechuan language that includes all Quechua varieties of Ecuador and Colombia ('' Inga''), as well as extensions into Peru. It has an estimated half million speakers. Classification Kichwa belongs to the Nor ...

and

Huaorani The Waorani, Waodani, or Huaorani, also known as the Waos, are an Indigenous people from the Amazonian Region of Ecuador (Napo Province, Napo, Orellana Province, Ecuador, Orellana, and Pastaza Provinces) who have marked differences from other e ...

. The river itself is home to

caiman A caiman ( (also spelled cayman) from Taíno language, Taíno ''kaiman'') is an alligatorid belonging to the subfamily Caimaninae, one of two primary lineages within the Alligatoridae family (biology), family, the other being alligators. ...

s and

piranha A piranha (, or ; ) is any of a number of freshwater fish species in the subfamily Serrasalminae, of the family Serrasalmidae, in the order Characiformes. These fish inhabit South American rivers, floodplains, lakes and reservoirs. Although ...

"Palm Beach"

In 1956, on a

sandbar In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body of water close to the surface or ...

on the Curaray, five

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

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 ...

were killed by Huaorani tribespeople during

Operation Auca Operation Auca was an attempt by five Evangelicalism, Evangelical Christianity, Christian missionary, missionaries from the United States to bring Christianity to the Waorani people, Waorani or Huaorani people of the Amazon Rain forest, rain for ...

, an attempt to evangelize the Huaorani. The missionaries' bodies were then thrown into the river. A rescue team later recovered four of the bodies and buried them in a

mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of exec ...

on the river bank. The fifth, that of Ed McCully, was claimed to have been discovered downstream by a group of natives who produced McCully's wristwatch. However, his body was never located and positively identified. The missionaries had arrived by airplane and chose the sandbar as a suitable place to land, since it was the only land area nearby clear of trees. They built a camp on the sandbar which they nicknamed "Palm Beach". They also built a

treehouse A tree house, tree fort or treeshed, is a platform or building constructed around, next to or among the trunk or branches of one or more mature trees while above ground level. Tree houses can be used for recreation, work space, habitation, a ha ...

nearby. After the attack, the Huaorani stripped the plane of its fabric skin. The plane was then abandoned and left to the river. It disappeared, and was not discovered until 1994. Someone was walking along the sandbar and noticed a piece of bare metal sticking out of the sand. It was later discovered to be part of the metal framework of the Piper

aircraft An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, i ...

flown by

Nate Saint Nathanael Saint (30 August 19238 January 1956) was an evangelicalism, evangelical Christian missionary Aviator, pilot who, along with four others, was killed in Ecuador while attempting to Evangelism, evangelize the Huaorani people, Huaorani peop ...

. The river had almost completely buried its remains in the sand. The framework of the plane is now displayed in the headquarters of the

Mission Aviation Fellowship Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) is an Evangelical Christian organization that provides aviation, communications, and learning technology services to more than 1,000 Christian and humanitarian agencies, as well as thousands of isolated mission ...

. Today, the Huaorani Christian community often use the Curaray River as a site for

baptism Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...

s. Steve Saint and his children were all baptized there. The area is posited to be the origin of criollo cacao, the most rare type.

References

External links

Wikimapia

''Uncontacted: A field study of the Huaorani''
{{Operation Auca Tributaries of the Napo River Rivers of Ecuador Operation Auca International rivers of South America Rivers of Peru