Savages

4 Pages 976 Words

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...