A U S H IR IS continued
The cross and sword, mysticism and butchery, were alternately applied to a bewildered people to a nomadic life. It took nine years for the Spanish colonial mi litia to mete out their reprisal for this murder in the remote and trackless jungle. Two years passed before news of the missionary’s death even reached Quito, and not till after considerable trouble, ex pense and colonial and ecclesiasti cal red tape was a punitive expedi tion organized. The eight Aushiris responsible for the priest’s death were executed, and a feud that was to last for centuries was on. ing to pacify the tribe. Hampered by the children—two boys of about five and three years—the woman could not run fast enough to es cape and was taken prisoner. The Major described her as incredibly ugly, almost grotesque. She was short and completely naked, with a protruding belly, perhaps because of anemia or some parasitic disease. Her coarse black hair fell to her shoulders in a tangled mass. Her skin was dark, dirty and weather beaten. The children were naked too and similar in appearance.
ment to the laborer for the old sys tem of distributing the money through the gang boss or labor re cruiter, who all too often would pocket the workers’ pay himself. The Aushiris had their full share of this persecution and infection. To survive they adopted a policy of complete isolationism which has continued to this day and is en forced to the death. Their usual procedure is to kill any outsider who invades their territory, if they can do so with impunity, and then go off on long treks through the jungle. If outnumbered, they disappear in to the woods so silently and effec tively that they have been aptly de scribed as “the phantom people of the Curaray.” Farmers to some ex tent, they plant fields, then leave to return months later for whatever harvest there is. Because of their restless, nomadic ways they are hard to find, and their settlements are not permanent either in con struction or in site. An actual case history I heard from an Ecuadorian army officer il lustrates the tremendous difficulty of making any peaceful contact with them. This officer—let’s call him Major Rodriguez—was in com mand of a garrison on the Nushino River near Aushiri territory. One day he led a fishing party down stream to replenish the post’s food supplies. As they neared a beach along the river bank, they saw a naked Indian woman, whom the Major recognized as an Aushiri, with two children. He decided on the spur of the moment to kidnap the woman in order to learn the language as a first step toward try- Editor's Note W e thought our readers would like to see a secular magazines viewpoint of the death of the five US. missionaries in Ecuador early this year (see K.B. for April). This article is reprinted from "Americas," monthly maga zine published by the Pan American Union in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
The history of the Aushiris and other tribes in the Amazon basin since the coming of the white men has been one long tale of cruelty and carnage. Ironically, while the Spanish Catholic m issionaries searched out the infidel tribes in their own inhospitable green hell and either Christianized them or died in the attempt, the Spanish militia and both,Spanish and Por tuguese raiders invaded the Indian settlem en ts, hunted the brown skinned people like wild animals and sold them as slaves to the thriv ing colonial plantations. The cross and the sword — mysticism and butchery — were alternately ap plied to a bewildered and defense less people. But even the cruel ex ploits of the conquistadors were surpassed by the rubber traders who came later and exacted tithes of latex from the tribes. There were cases of Indian men being burned alive and their women quartered for failing to meet their rubber quotas. Diseases introduced by the Europeans, such as the dreaded smallpox, helped to decimate the tribes. The name of the Omaguas, a thriving and numerous people who were living along the headwa ters of the Amazon at the time of the Conquest, is now only a fading reminder of an extinct tribe. After the rubber boom collapsed, the sadistic traders left. But sub sequent white settlers instituted the peonage system, and the tamed In dian tribes in this area of Ecuador lived in virtual serfdom until the Shell Company alleviated the sit uation by substituting direct pay
Back at the garrison, the prison ers were locked up in a room, and Major Rodriguez tried his best to dispel the woman’s uncontrollable fear. But whenever the white men entered the room, she would howl like a terrified animal and crouch with the children in the farthest Comer. When they left they could hear her clawing at the walls seek ing a way out. At night they heard her jumping against the zinc roof like a wild creature until she finally fell to the floor exhausted. She re fused to eat and began to waste away. Then the Major, aware that confinement never agrees with peo ple brought up in the open, allowed her to go outside under watch. One day she wandered along the river bank with the children. The sol diers reported that she gathered a large quantity of barbasco root and chewed it to extract the juice. As suming she intended to use the poi sonous juice to stun and catch fish, as the Indians do in this region, the Major believed she was taking an interest in things again. During the night she drank the poison and gave some to the children. Despite the soldiers’ efforts to save them, only the younger boy survived. Much later the Major learned why she had committed suicide: she knew she could never return to her tribe, for it is a law that anyone who has contact with outsiders, willingly or unwillingly, must be put to death —such is Aushiri hatred and fear of the white men. The Major decided to adopt the surviving child, and in due course
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THE KING 'S BUSINESS
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