The Northeast Tribes of South America

In 1542 Francisco de Orellana went down the Amazon from the Andes to the Atlantic, and his chaplain Gaspar de Carvajal wrote the account. He describes towns along the banks for many leagues, roads leading inland from the river, great stores of food, fine painted pottery, and warriors who came out against the boats in fleets of canoes. It was Carvajal who told of women who led the fighting, and the river was named after the Amazons of Greek legend.

Across the basin there are patches of deep black, very fertile soil called terra preta, often a metre or more deep and covering many hectares. It was made by people, over centuries, from charcoal, broken pottery, bone and household waste mixed into the poor red soil of the rainforest. The charcoal holds nutrients and does not break down. Terra preta made two thousand years ago is still more fertile than the ground beside it, and people dig it up and sell it as garden soil.

Lidar — laser pulses fired from aircraft, which slip through gaps in the canopy — lets the ground be mapped under the trees. In the Llanos de Mojos in Bolivia and the Upano valley in Ecuador, surveys have mapped raised fields, canals, causeways and platform mounds joined by straight roads. In Acre state in Brazil, where forest has been cleared, hundreds of geoglyphs have come to light: great ditched circles and squares, some hundreds of metres across.

On the Atlantic coast, the German gunner Hans Staden was captured by the Tupinambá in 1554 and lived among them for nine months before a French ship took him home. His True History of 1557, with its woodcuts, describes their villages, longhouses, hammocks, feasts and wars, and his own captivity, in detail.

The first European to travel the whole Amazon had his journey written down in 1542. What has since been found in the Amazon's soil and beneath its forest adds to that account.

Down the river in 1542

In 1542 Francisco de Orellana went down the Amazon all the way from the Andes to the Atlantic Ocean. His chaplain, the priest Gaspar de Carvajal, wrote the account of the journey. He describes towns along the banks stretching for many leagues (a league is about three miles), roads leading inland from the river, great stores of food, fine painted pottery, and warriors who came out against the Spanish boats in fleets of canoes. It was Carvajal who told of women who led the fighting. Because of this, the river was named after the Amazons, women warriors of Greek legend.

Soil made by people

Across the Amazon basin there are patches of deep, black, very fertile soil called terra preta, Portuguese for "black earth." It is often a metre or more deep and covers many hectares. It was made by people, over centuries, from charcoal, broken pottery, bone and household waste mixed into the poor red soil of the rainforest. The charcoal holds on to nutrients and does not break down. Terra preta made two thousand years ago is still more fertile than the ground beside it, and people dig it up and sell it as garden soil.

Seeing under the trees

Lidar works by firing laser pulses from aircraft. Some pulses slip through gaps in the leaves and bounce off the ground, so the ground can be mapped under the trees. In the Llanos de Mojos in Bolivia and the Upano valley in Ecuador, lidar surveys have mapped raised fields, canals, causeways and platform mounds joined by straight roads. In Acre state in Brazil, where forest has been cleared, hundreds of geoglyphs have come to light — huge circles and squares marked out by ditches, some hundreds of metres across.

A captive on the coast

On the Atlantic coast, a German gunner named Hans Staden was captured by the Tupinambá in 1554. He lived among them for nine months before a French ship took him home. His book, the True History, printed in 1557 with woodcut pictures, describes in detail their villages, longhouses, hammocks, feasts and wars, and his own captivity.

Four things worth knowing

• Terra preta can be over 2 metres deep and still good for farming after two thousand years.
• Lidar surveys in the Upano valley, Ecuador, published in 2024, mapped thousands of earthen platforms joined by straight roads.
• Carvajal lost an eye in one of the fights on the river, as he records in his account.
• Bitter manioc, the main food of the region, contains a poison. It must be grated, pressed and cooked before it is safe to eat.

The great Amazon River runs across South America through the biggest rainforest in the world. Many peoples lived along its banks and on the Atlantic coast, among them the Tupinambá, the Arawak and the Carib.

People and their jobs

• The village leader spoke for the village and led it in war.
• The farmer grew manioc, a root that was the main food.
• The cook grated, pressed and cooked the manioc. Some manioc has poison in it, and this work made it safe to eat.
• The potter made fine painted pots. The first Europeans on the river wrote about how beautiful they were.
• The canoe warrior paddled out in big groups of canoes to guard the village.
• The women warriors. A Spanish priest on the river, Gaspar de Carvajal, wrote that women led some of the fighting. That is how the Amazon River got its name.

Animals

• The jaguar is the great spotted cat of the rainforest.
• Parrots fill the forest with colour and noise.
• Fish from the river were an important food.

Things they made and used

• Canoes were the way to travel. The river was the main road.
• Hammocks were beds that hung between posts. A German sailor, Hans Staden, lived with the Tupinambá and wrote about their hammocks in his book.
• Longhouses were long houses where many families lived together.
• Rattles. Staden also wrote about gourd rattles used in their ceremonies.
• Black earth (terra preta) is dark, rich soil that people made over hundreds of years from charcoal, broken pots and kitchen scraps. It is still good for growing plants today.
• Earthworks. Big ditches, roads and mounds lie hidden under the trees. Today lasers fired from airplanes can map them through gaps in the leaves.