See also:  With Spears from all Sides

Originally posted on Arcata1.com: March 13, 2023

In the Ecuadorian Amazon, indigenous Huaorani people waged an exhausting battle against the American petroleum interests that have begun drilling to two hundred million barrels of raw crude under their lands. Then Moi, a Huaorani leader, decided to try the diplomatic route.

This article appeared in the May 2, 1994, issue of The New Yorker magazine. It was written by Joe Kane. The photograph of Moi is by Richard Avedon.

The article contains this passage, with Moi asking the questions to Joe Kane:

The sidewalks were full, and traffic roared. “There are so many cars,” he said. “How long have they been here? A million years?”

“Much less.”

“A thousand years?”

“No. Eighty, perhaps.”

He was silent then, and after a while he asked, “What will you do in ten more years? In ten years, your world will be pure metal. Did your god do this?”

Dusk turned to night, and as we approached our hotel Moi stopped beneath a streetlamp. He pointed to straight up at the light. “But there are the Huaorani, all alone in the middle of the world.”