The Harakmbut (Arakmbut, Harakmbet) are

indigenous people in Peru The Indigenous peoples of Peru or Indigenous Peruvians comprise a large number of ethnic groups who inhabit territory in present-day Peru. Indigenous cultures developed here for thousands of years before the arrival of the Spanish in 1532. In 2 ...

. They speak the Harakmbut language. An estimated 2,000 Harakmbut people live in the

Madre de Dios Region Madre de Dios (, ) is a department and region in southeastern Peru, bordering Brazil, Bolivia and the Peruvian departments of Puno, Cusco and Ucayali, in the Amazon Basin. Its capital is the city of Puerto Maldonado. It is also the third large ...

near the

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

ian border in the Peruvian

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

."Peru: Indigenous Harakmbut Suffer Effects Of Climate Change."
''Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources.'' (retrieved 20 Feb 2011)

Amarakaeri

Amarakaeri are also called Amaracaire or Amarakaire people. Subgroups of their tribe include the Kochimberi, Küpondirideri, Wíntaperi, Wakitaneri, and Kareneri peoples. As of 1987, 500 Amarakaeri people lived near the Madre de Dios and Colorado Rivers. Some pan for gold as a means of subsistence."Amarakaeri."
''Ethnologue.'' Retrieved 15 Feb 2012. Anthropologist Andrew Gray stated that the Amarakaeri population was under one thousand in 1996. Gray believed that the Amarakaeri's distance from the main stream of the Madre de Dios River may have accounted for their survival.

Huachipaeri

Huachipaeri are also known as Huachipaire or Wachipaeri people. As of 2000, there were 310 Huachipaeri living near the upper Madre de Dios and Keros Rivers. Subgroups of the Huachipaeri including the following, with population figures from 2000: * Arasairi, population 20 * Manuquiari, population 50 * Puikiri (Puncuri), population 36–50 * Sapiteri, population 12 * Toyeri, population 10 All the subgroups speak dialects of the Huachipaeri language.

History

The Toyeri were originally the largest Harakmbut group however most of them died during the

rubber boom The Amazon rubber cycle or boom (, ; , ) was an important part of the socioeconomic history of Brazil and Amazonian regions of neighboring countries, being related to the commercialization of rubber and the genocide of indigenous peoples. Cente ...

from disease, murder, slavery, and other factors. Slave raids into the Madre de Dios and Harakmbut territory from Peruvians began with the development of the

Isthmus of Fitzcarrald The Fitzcarrald Isthmus is an 11 km long land bridge that connected important rubber trade routes of the Urubamba River and the Madre de Dios River in Peru. Carlos Fermin Fitzcarrald came across the land bridge in 1893 after repeated atte ...

in 1894. The Toyeri were the first indigenous group that rubber baron

Carlos Fitzcarrald Carlos Fermín Fitzcarrald López (6 July 18629 July 1897) was a Peruvian Rubber boom#Rubber barons, rubber baron. He was born in San Luis, Ancash, in a province that was later Carlos Fermín Fitzcarrald Province, named after him. In the early ...

encountered on the Manu River. Around two thousand Toyeri natives were massacred by Fitzcarrald's enterprise around 1895 at a location known as El Mirador Grande. Andrew Gray stated that "the use of machine guns caused death on a scale never witnessed in the Peruvian Amazon before." Gray estimated that between 1894 and 1914 the Araseri and Toyeri populations were reduced by 95 percent. Some of the surviving Araseri and Toyeri fled towards the headwaters of the Madre de Dios: this led to a shortage of resources in the headwaters and a great conflict between the Arakmbut and the new migrants. When the Harakmbut were first contacted by members of the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

in 1940, they numbered 30,000. The development of a road from Cusco into the Madre de Dios coincided with a smallpox epidemic in 1948 which decimated the Huachipaeri population. Andrew Gray stated that the Sapiteri demographic became

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

due to smallpox and influenza outbreaks that occurred post contact with the Dominican missionaries.

Notable Harakmbut people

Q'orianka Kilcher Q'orianka Waira Qoiana Kilcher (; born February 11, 1990) is an American actress. Her best known film roles are Pocahontas in Terrence Malick's 2005 film '' The New World'', and Kaiulani in '' Princess Kaiulani'' (2009). In 2020, she starred i ...

(b. 1990), American actress of Huachipaeri and

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several Indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, an Indigenous South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language ...

descent on her father's sideYuan, Jada
"The Newcover: Q'orianka Kilcher."
''New York Movies''. 18 Dec 2005. Retrieved 15 Feb 2011.

Bibliography

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Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harakmbut Indigenous peoples of the Amazon Indigenous peoples in Peru