Savages
The Huaorani of the Ecuadorian Amazon are a tribe of fearsome warriors, able to endure for centuries whatever hardship the forest put in front of them. Having never been exposed to the outside “civilized” world until recently, the Huaorani lived their lives as their fathers had before them—getting everything they needed and wanted from the forest. They lived simpler lives of hunting and gathering, traveling as nomads wherever the forest took them. However, rich deposits of oil were discovered in the Amazon, and since then the Huaorani’s way of life has never been the same. Forced by the people of the outside world, or cowode meaning “cannibals”, to conform to their rules, their religion, and their politics, the Huaorani have been thrust into unfamiliar territory where their rules, their religion, and their politics are simply viewed as wrong and demonic. Because they have been forced to interact with the outside world, the Huaorani have had to develop relationships with many groups, most notably of which are the Christian missionaries and environmental groups. Each with their own reasons for being involved with the Huaorani, the missionaries and the environmentalists have had a major impact on the “new” life of the Huaorani.
Christian missionary groups have been in full force in the Amazon since the beginning of oil drilling. With Rachael Saint at the façade, missionaries have formed a relationship with the Huaorani. They believe that it is their divine duty to convert the Huaorani from their “…dark and demonic…culture” (Kane 40) and make the Huaorani’s lives better through God, Christ, and specialized education. But the relationship between the Huaorani and the missionaries is “…not of shared faith but of power and reward” (Kane 89). Many of the native people only believe in God and Christ because they have been forced to, or they truly do not believe in Christianity, only saying they do for special treatment or rewards. In fact, the authors says, after “…the several hours I spent with Dayuma (supposedly the most Christian of all the Huaorani), she did not mention Jesus” (Kane 84).
The Huaorani are a people born in raised by the forest and family—that is their religion. The idea of worshiping one singular man is preposterous to them. If America is the land of religious freedom, why do some religious leaders believe that they can superimpose their religious ideals on others in other countries? In those areas where the word of God has been heard, the Huaorani are not better off, in fact, they are far from it. Hunger, poverty, and sickness are just some of the ailments in these areas, due to the natives new dependency on cowode abundancia that their new “civil” ways bring. Attempts were even made to include the Huaorani culture in an educational movement that incorporated both the old and the new cultures—to form a “…genuine bilingual, bicultural education” (Kane 141). But it seems that the Christian missionaries do not believe in retaining any shed of the old Huaorani lifestyle—it might impede on the brainwashing of the Huaorani.
In many instances, the missionaries work hand-in-hand with the oil companies, both only caring about their own self interests instead of the interests and rights of the Huaorani. The “Via Auca zone is a legacy of the symbiotic relationship between American evangelical missionaries and the Company…Rachel Saint and other North American missionaries affiliated with the Summer Institute of Linguistics conducted a program with the aid of magic and trinkets—airplanes and mirrors and salt—lured most of the Huaorani into a small protectorate on the far western edge of their traditional lands” (Kane 27).
The situation with environmental groups in the Amazon can be easily summed in the words of Nanto, a Huaorani when he said, “How can these people speak for us, if we have never met them?” (Kane 21). The mission of the environmentalists began because “Ecuador had no environmental regulations for oil production, and no attempt was made to assess its environmental impact until 1989, when an American named Judith Kimerling came to the country and began to stick her nose into things” (Kane 70).
Although Kimerling’s heart was in the right place, everything comes back to money, and in that sense “It all gets back to oil” (Kane 115). Kimerling and her group CONFENIAE were genuinely interested in what was happening to the forest and the plight of the Huaorani. But once money was introduced into the equation, CONFENIAE, like so many environmental groups, performed an about-face, defending the oil companies in many circumstances because they say they provide schools and hospitals. What the environmental groups knew, but conveniently forget is that the drilling is “destroying the source of all life, the forest itself” (Kane 7). Groups like the NRDC are a great example of this type of thinking created by the oil companies and their money in which environmental groups support the obliteration of the forest. The NRDC which is “opposed to oil drilling in national parks in the United States”, but promotes it in Latin America.
For the most part, environmental groups have done little good for the Huaorani. Although they may have grand ideas of improving the plight of the Huaorani, the corruption of the oil industry eventually engulfs them. Only the Huaorani know what is best for them. And only the Huaorani know the forest and what is best for it.
In conclusion, the situation can not be summed up better than in the words of Jose Miguel who said, “Americans kill without knowing they are doing it. You don’t want to know you are doing it. And yet you are going to destroy an entire way of life. So you tell me: Who are the savages?” (Kane 75).
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