Mayoruna

The Mayoruna tribe lives in the western part of the Amazon watershed, near the Ucayali River. This tribe is known as the “cat people,” because of the cat whiskers that many of them have on their faces. Missionaries contacted the tribe in 1654, which was followed by an epidemic in the tribe, reducing their numbers to one thousand people. They then went into hiding, and sent the U.S. government a note in 1851, stating that any person on their land would be killed. Little is known about the state of this violent tribe today.

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