Losing Game 



Coaxed out of Bolivia 's vanishing wilderness, the last Yuqui 

 are reluctant to give up the hunt 



by Allyn MacLean Stearman 



I first heard of the people I later came to 

 know as the Yuqui in the early 1960s, 

 when I was a Peace Corps volunteer work- 

 ing in agricultural development in lowland 

 BoUvia. I was assigned to the old Francis- 

 can mission town of San Carlos, which sits 

 on a bluff overlooking a wide expanse of 

 lowland forest to the west; in the distance, 

 the first ranges of the Andes rise abruptly 

 from the blue-green haze. The villagers, I 

 found, were fond of recounting what I sus- 

 pected were apocryphal tales about iso- 

 lated groups of native Amazonians still 

 living in inaccessible comers of this wil- 

 derness. About forty-five miles northwest 

 of the city of Santa Cruz, San Carlos was a 



With large game scarce, a Yuqui hunter 

 killed a macaw for food. 



jumping-off point for hunters, loggers, and 

 the occasional settler, who stopped to buy 

 supplies at our local stores. From time to 

 time, we would hear unconfirmed reports 

 of shooting incidents involving these ad- 

 venturers and the shadowy people of the 

 forest. 



One memorable day, four men carried a 

 wounded settler into San Carlos; a large, 

 bamboo-tipped arrow had pierced his 

 thigh. Old Ignacio Leon, at the center of 

 the crowd that gathered around the man, 

 looked at the arrow and solemnly pro- 

 nounced, "It is from the people we call 

 chori, the ones who live in the forest." We 

 talked about this incident for weeks after- 

 ward as the villagers pon- 

 dered this close encounter 



Such confrontations have 

 had a place in lowland Boli- 

 vian folklore since early colo- 

 nial times. Just prior to the 

 European conquest, accord- 

 ing to tales recorded in the 

 early Spanish chronicles, the 

 warlike Itatin, inhabiting 

 what is now northern Para- 

 guay, sent raiding parties 

 north into the plains and 

 forests of eastern Bolivia, pri- 

 marily to take land from the 

 indigenous people and cap- 

 ture individuals for use as 

 slaves. The Yuquf, Siriono, 

 and other present-day Gua- 

 rani-speaking peoples in Bo- 

 livia are most likely the de- 

 scendants of Itatin warriors 

 who chose to remain in this 

 territory. 



During the early years of 

 Spanish expansion into low- 

 land Bolivia, these groups 

 fought the European advance 

 but were ultimately defeated. 

 Most of the survivors ended 



Kenl H. Bedford 



up near missions such as San Carlos, 

 where they, and other indigenous peoples, 

 interbred with Europeans to form the pre- 

 sent-day mestizo, or mixed, population. 

 Only some, like the Yuqui, found refuge in 

 the forests beyond the reach of their ene- 

 mies. 



In their infrequent encounters with out- 

 siders over the years, the Yuqui were in- 

 variably hostile. Well aware of the group's 

 fierce reputation, Bolivians entering the 

 wilderness went well armed and prepared 

 for conflict. Even with firearms, however, 

 they were often no match for the elusive 

 Yuqui, waiting in ambush with seven- 

 foot-long bows and arrows. Often, only a 

 glimpse of an armed Yuqui was enough to 

 keep people out of an area for years. 



Then, in the 1950s, the Bolivian gov- 

 ernment decided to make the development 

 of the lowlands a priority and began pro- 

 moting pioneering by the highland peas- 

 antry. As far as the Bolivian government 

 was concerned, much of this region was 

 vacant land. With colonization projects ex- 

 panding to the north and south of their ter- 

 ritory, the Yuqui found themselves trapped 

 in a vise of settlement. 



Violence escalated as more colonists 

 moved into the region. To put an end to the 

 Yuqui threat, as well as occasional pilfer- 

 age of crops, the settlers began to plan or- 

 ganized manhunts. Learning of the in- 

 creased sightings and hostihties, the New 

 Tribes Mission, a group of North Ameri- 

 can Protestant missionaries, set up camp 

 near the Chimore River, about ninety 

 miles west of San Carlos, to try to make 

 peaceful contact with the Yuqui. After 

 several public debates, the missionaries 

 convinced the settlers that the better strat- 

 egy would be to "pacify" the Yuqui rather 

 than to risk more lives in efforts to exter- 

 minate them. 



From 1955 to 1965, the missionaries 

 engaged in a tedious campaign to earn the 



6 Natural History 1/94 



