Penti Baihua was a child in the 1970s when his father, Ahua, his grandfather, Mipo, and other indigenous Waorani warriors armed with spears prevented “white men” from entering their land in the rainforest of northeast Ecuador. Now Baihua, a 49-year-old leader of the Waorani community of Bameno, is calling on Ecuador’s government and the world to help his people keep their rainforest lands intact. “Let us live,” he says, referring to the Waorani as well as to the Tagaeri and Taromenane—indigenous peoples who, unlike the Waorani, live in voluntary isolation but who, like the Waorani, are subject to increasing encroachment. “[We] are the ancestral inhabitants of the jungle and we want to preserve it.” Baihua worries in particular about violence breaking out... [Log in to read more]