Save America's Forests comments on the movie:

END OF THE SPEAR

One of the greatest threats now facing the Huaorani is the overwhelming presence of oil companies on their ancestral territory. Indeed, there are eight oil concessions, operated by six different foreign oil companies, overlapping ancestral Huaorani territory. Moreover, there are two oil access roads which penetrate deep into Huaorani territory, and the Brazilian oil company Petrobras is now attempting to build what would be the third major road into Huaorani territory.

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We are disturbed by the fact that the major motion picture “End of the Spear” gives a one-sided view of the work of the missionaries in Huaorani territory without dealing with the widespread allegations that the missionaries (Summer Institute of Linguistics, in particular) were in fact collaborating with the oil companies to relocate the Huaorani out of potentially oil-rich areas. Indeed, the Huaorani migration to Rachel Saint’s “protectorate” enabled Texaco to build a 90 km oil access road south from Coca deep into Huaorani territory. This road not only began the advance of oil companies unto Huaorani territory, but also triggered extensive colonization of Huaorani territory by outside peoples.

Here we compile some of the most serious allegations lodged against SIL.

From Joe Kane, Savages, p. 86

“The Company showed them [Rachel Saint and Dayuma] where it wanted to explore for oil; Rachel and Dayuma moved the clans out and brought them into the tiny “protectorate” they persuaded the government to create in 1969. Desperate to colonize the Oriente as rapidly as possible, the government put Rachel’s sponsor, SIL, in charge of Huaorani health and education…”

From John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, p.142

"SIL had been working extensively with the Huaorani tribe in the Amazon basin area, during the early years of oil exploration, when a disturbing pattern emerged. Whenever seismologists reported to corporate headquarters that a certain region had characteristics indicating a high probability of oil beneath the surface, SIL went in and encouraged the indigenous people to move from that land, onto missionary reservations; there they would receive free food, shelter, clothes, medical treatment, and missionary-style education. The condition was that they had to deed their lands to the oil companies.

From Judith Kimerling, Amazon Crude, p. 85

“The first peaceful contacts between Huaorani and cowode [outsiders]—fundamentalist missionaries from the U.S.-based Summer Institute of Linguistics/Wycliffe Bible Translator Inc. (SIL) and Christian Missions in Many Lands—were in 1958. Most Huaorani, however, had no peaceful contacts with outsiders until the early 1970s, when SIL missionaries established contact and convinced them to leave their homelands to join previously-evangelized Huaorani groups living in the western edge of traditional Huaorani lands. Oil exploration activities were underway in the areas that the newly contacted bands had lived in, and several oil workers and Huaorani had been killed there (Rival 1990).

Foreign oil companies, such as Texaco, Shell, and Gulf collaborated with SIL to “pacify” both the Huaorani and other Oriente peoples. A study by the national oil company described this collaboration as a “hybrid process of religious interests mixed with oil company ambitions, that assured an effective cultural-religious subjugation in order to dominate indigenous peoples and use their labor and explore the riches of their lands.

From Oil Watch, Oil Exploitation in the Yasuni Biosphere Reserve, p.8-9 (http://www.oilwatch.org.ec/english/documentos/ap_yasuni_ing.pdf)

“The tragic history of the Huaorani begins with the arrival of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), a North American group with a religious approach that learns the native languages, translates the Bible and evangelizes the indigenous populations, in order to achieve a favorable environment for the North American companies. Starting on the second decade of the 20th Century, SIL worked in Ecuador to favor Texaco.

Due to their reputation as ferocious warriors, it was necessary to “clean” the area before exploration activities could begin, so that oil workers could have a peaceful work environment. So SIL created a “Protectorate” whose intentions were to reduce all of the Huaorani people into a very small space controlled by SIL. This process took several years, between 1958 and 1971.”

From The Peoples of the World Foundation, The Huaorani (http://peoplesoftheworld.org/text?people=Huaorani)

“In the late 1960s the oil company, Texaco, approached the Ecuadorian government hoping for permission to drill for oil on Huaorani land. Saint and Dayuma became a key part of the following massive displacement of hundreds of Huaorani.”

“The missionaries and the Ecuadorian government agreed to relocate as many Huaorani as possible away from the drilling areas to the missions that had been established in the previous ten years. Hundreds were relocated, while others fled to even more remote parts of the jungle.”

From Brandon Yoder, Indigenous People and Oil Production In Ecuador's Oriente (http://www.cwis.org/fwj/51/b_yoder.html)

“Out of all of the negative aspects that have come about as a result of oil production in the Oriente, the one that has had the greatest impact on the indigenous people, outside of the pollution, has been the encroachment of missionaries into their daily lives. Beginning in 1967 with Texaco’s discovery of the Oriente oil field, oil companies have constantly used missionaries as a method of quelling indigenous animosity and relocating the indigenous peoples from possible drilling sites. The missionaries used in these procedures have drastically reshaped the indigenous communities and are responsible for altering the behavioral practices that once served as a way of life for the indigenous peoples. Although Rachel Saint’s establishment of a permanent indigenous community precedes Texaco’s oil exploration (Kimmerling, 76), her role in the early years of Texaco’s oil production was momentous because of her success in aiding the relocation of the indigenous people.

When Texaco first began to move into the Oriente, it was the Huaorani tribe that presented the greatest obstacle to Texaco’s efforts. Various attempts to bribe the Huaorani with air dropped packages containing metal goods and food supplies were unsuccessful and Texaco initiated the use of violence against the indigenous peoples (Kimmerling, 78). The violent outbreaks with Texaco scared many of the Huaorani, who in fear relocated to Tihueno, Saint’s permanent indigenous community.”

“After missionaries were successful in abetting Texaco’s attempts to overcome the obstacles that the indigenous people posed, further impact on the indigenous peoples continued. While the displacement and relocation of the tribes was occurring, Texaco lost no time and began construction on the Via Auca, a roadway that extends sixty miles deep into the center of traditional indigenous lands (Kimmerling, 85). The Via Auca was responsible for the deforestation of 2.5 million acres of rainforest and a government encouraged flood of settlers. The invasion of settlers and the pollution from oil production were both liable for the degradation of the rainforest, which brutally impacted the indigenous peoples who had not migrated to permanent indigenous communities. The surrounding lands that transcend the length of the Via Auca have been severely polluted, in addition to being colonized and deforested. The settlers inhabiting the land along the Via Auca have often held very tense relations with the Huaorani and other indigenous tribes, a tension which infringes on the indigenous peoples’ ability to live a life in accordance with longstanding cultural standards. Texaco’s practices in the areas encircling the Via Auca have contaminated the environment so harshly that the indigenous people residing these surrounding areas are no longer able to live a healthy life.”

(Editor's Note: It is disgraceful that these realities were not made known in the Plymouth Brethren churches that supported Wycliffe (SIL). They are shameful facts that can not be dismissed. In the end, it was as much about oil as anything else, and the propaganda machine for the church charges on, just another face for the great white way, rapo capitalism and the subjugation of Indigenous Peoples to facilitate the removal of their resources. Let us hope that Americans get the chance to experience what they have so readily heaped on other peoples.)