If you zoom in on the Surui reserve via Google Earth, you will
see a green oasis surrounded by devastation. Once, the Paiter-
Surui tribe thrived in the heart of the Amazon rain forest in
Brazil. But after the tribe’s first encounters with Westerners
several decades ago, they were nearly wiped out; diseases
brought by outsiders reduced the Surui’s numbers from 5,000 to
about 250. Today, some 1,300 tribespeople live in 23 villages
across 600,000 acres. Though they are as likely to wear T-shirts
and jeans as feathered headdresses, the Surui are determined to
preserve and protect the tribal culture of their Amazon enclave.
They are under siege again, from illegal logging and
deforestation, but this time it’s different. The Surui have put
aside their bows and arrows and taken up a new weapon: the
Internet. Much of the credit for the tribe’s Web savvy goes to
the leader of the Surui, Chief Almir Narayamoga. “We decided to
use computers and technology to bring attention to our
situation,” says Narayamoga, 36. The fi