How the Indigenous women of the Juma tribe saved their culture from near extinction
Sisters Mandei, Mayta, and Borea Juma have worked together to save their tribe and keep their culture alive, after the death of their father.
Andre Penner/AP Photos
- The Juma Indigenous tribe once numbered in the thousands.
- Years of settlers from the rubber and forestry industries decimated the population.
- In 2021, the last man in the patrilineal culture of the Juma died from COVID-19.
In the 18th century, an estimated 15,000 Juma people were located in the Amazonas state. After years of disease and massacres at the hands of rubber tappers, loggers, and miners, only 100 remained by 1943.
After a massacre in 1964 by the townspeople of Tapaua for access to resources on Juma land, 60 Juma people were killed, and only seven were left. By 1999, only one man was left in the patrilineal society, the chief Aruká Juma, after his brother-in-law died in a panther attack.
After Aruká died on February 17, 2021, the tribe was considered extinct. In the Juma tradition, the Juma name is passed on by the male, and Aruká Juma's children are all women.
Subjugated to years of displacement, massacres by settlers, and general mistreatment, Aruká's daughters — Mandeí Juma, Maytá Juma, and Boreá Juma — took matters into their own hands.
Here's how the Juma is keeping their culture alive in efforts led by the daughters of the last male chief.
Andre Penner/ AP photos
Mandeí, her sisters, and their father had a different plan. The last remaining Juma decided that the death of Aruká wouldn't result in the extinction of their tribe.
Instead, Mandeí picked up the mantle of chief and has been doing her best to keep their traditions, culture, and language alive.
Andre Penner/AP Photos
The Juma were forcibly removed from their land in 1998 to the Rondônia state and married members of the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau tribe to keep the tribe alive.
The move was difficult for the remaining Juma. The Associated Press reported that Aruká's sister and brother-in-law died of sadness just months after their move to their new location.
Andre Penner/AP Photos
Puré Juma, the son of Boreá Juma, has broken with the patrilineal tradition of the tribe and has adopted his mother, Borea Juma's, last name.
"I kind of broke the anthropology rules and followed my mother's lineage," Puré, 22, told the AP. "If I don't identify myself as Juma, who else will?"
When he turned 15, Puré went to Brazil's Indigenous bureau, FUNAI, and changed his legal name to add his mothers. His full name is now Puré Juma Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau.
Andre Penner/AP Photos
Andre Penner/AP Photos
Andre Penner/AP photos
Andre Penner/AP Photos
Andre Penner/AP photos
Plans to pave a highway near the Juma territory increase the risk of people trying to take Juma land.
The Juma also have been targeted by anti-Indigenous groups who claim the government goes too far in protecting Indigenous groups and providing large swaths of land despite their size.
Andre Penner/AP Photos.
As deforestation across the Amazon increases to make room for cattle and soybean farming, the rivers are starting to dry up, and temperatures are beginning to rise, Mandeí said.
"The river doesn't fill with water as it used to ... The water shouldn't dry up so much like this," Mandeí told the AP. "It's much hotter, it wasn't like this before. Our concern is this: Why is this happening? Because of deforestation."
Kaninde, a local Indigenous non-profit, donated drones to the Juma to help them monitor remote areas against loggers, poachers, and fishermen.
Andre Penner/AP Photos
Aruká Juma was the last fluent speaker of the Juma language. After his family was forcibly removed from their land, he expressed his discontent that he was unable to speak with his grandchildren.
Working with Wesley Dos Santos, a linguist at the University of California Berkeley, a multimedia dictionary was created "for cellphones, along with an online collection of digital archives with traditional narratives, monologues, and songs in the Juma language," the AP reported.
Andre Penner/AP Photos
Andre Penner/AP Photos
"Because we were few, people didn't recognize or respect us," Mandeí told AP. "There had never been a woman leader before, and then people came to tell me, 'You shouldn't have assumed it because you're a woman.'"
At first, that hurt, she said. But that didn't stop Mandeí from doing the impossible and keeping the Juma alive.
"I adapted to seek solutions for our people," Mandeí said.