Chief Almir decided survival depended on outreach.” Then loggers arrived, laying waste to the Surui’s homeland. In 1969, shortly before Almir was born, the tribe had its first contact with outsiders, who brought disease, violence, and death with them. “For a man whose way of life has been threatened by modernity, activist and tribal leader Chief Almir of the Surui people of the Brazilian Amazon has looked to a surprising source to help his tribe maintain its traditional way of life: Google. In an effort to maintain the tribe’s ‘traditional’ way of life, Google has partnered with the villagers to help equip them with the tools to report those that exploit the Amazon’s natural resources. Chief Almir has partnered with Google in an attempt to use YouTube, smartphones, and Google Earth to fight against the illegal logging of his tribe’s land. OS X Daily passes on this fascinating story from FastCompany’s ‘Most Creative People in Business 2011’ list.
