Several readers made this observation:
Are you telling me that girl independently invented metalworking advanced enough to create what looks like a stainless-steel machete, all by herself? I don't think so. "Uncontacted tribe", my eye.
Another writes:
While that is a beautiful video and a concept I find fascinating, it involves the same “uncontacted” tribe that caused quite a stir a couple years ago.
For those of us living in the modern world, it’s romantic to think there might be some remote tribe of people untouched and untainted by civilization. There’s something very “Mosquito Coast” about it. But I suspect the truth is somewhat less interesting. From my limited research around the web, it appears that most of these tribes have in fact had contact but decided they didn’t like what they saw and moved farther away from civilization. In many cases their experience with outsiders is of violence and exploitation, so they simply want nothing to do with the rest of the world.
That doesn’t make them “uncontacted.” Just very isolated.
Update from a reader:
Take a look at this graphic explaining some of the details in a photo of the "uncontacted tribe". The organization says inter-tribal trading neworks may have provided the machete.