Known as “The Man of the Hole,” the native lived in isolation in Brazil’s Rondonia state for 26 years, according to the non-profit organization Survival International. The man, believed to be around 60 years old, was named for his habit of digging deep holes to trap animals or hide. An official from Brazil’s indigenous protection agency, FUNAI, found his body in a hammock outside his thatched hut on Tuesday. There were no signs of a struggle or violence. FUNAI said the man died of natural causes and his body will undergo a forensic examination by the federal police. The rest of his tribe had been killed in a series of raids from the 1970s onwards, carried out mainly by ranchers looking to expand their land. Fiona Watson, director of research and advocacy at Survival International, commented on the news of his death: “No outsider knew this man’s name, or even much about his race – and with his death the genocide of the people his completed. “For this was indeed a genocide – the deliberate extermination of an entire people by pastoralists hungry for land and wealth.” Image: The man was nicknamed for his habit of digging deep holes to trap animals or hide in. Photo: J Pessoa Survival International He added: “It symbolizes both the appalling violence and cruelty inflicted on indigenous peoples around the world in the name of colonization and profit, but also their resistance. “We can only imagine the horrors he must have seen in his life and the loneliness of his existence after killing the rest of his tribe, but he resolutely resisted all attempts at contact and made it clear that he just wanted to be left alone.” Footage of the unidentified man taken showing him hacking a tree with an ax was released by FUNAI in 2018. Survival International said its abandoned campsites showed it planted crops such as maize, papaya and bananas and built its houses from straw and thatch.
