The Akurio are an

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

living in

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

. They are

hunter-gatherers A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

, who were first contacted in 1938 when chanced upon by a survey party led by Willem Ahlbrinck. Ahlbrinck was on a mission to find the Ojarikoelé tribe, also known as Wajarikoele, but could not find them. A little over thirty years later in 1969, they were rediscovered by Ivan Schoen, a Protestant missionary. The people were nomadic and had a predilection for honey-gathering and the stone tools they had were typically employed for this endeavor. In 1975 American

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

persuaded the tribe to live in

Pelelu Tepu Pelelu Tepu is an Amerindian village in the hinterland of Suriname. Also known as "Pe'reru Tepu", the village is typically referred to simply as "Tepu," which mean "high" in the Indian Tiriyó language. The village is located on Tepu hill, on t ...

Name

The Akurio are also called Akoerio, Akuliyo, Akuri, Akurijo, Akuriyo, Oyaricoulet, Triometesem, Triometesen, Wama, or Wayaricuri people.

Population

40% to 50% of the Akurio died within two years after contact in 1969. The population was estimated to be 50 in 2000. It fell to 40 by 2012.

Language

The group used the

Akurio language Akurio, also known as Akuriyó, is an endangered Cariban language that was used by the Akurio people in Suriname until the late 20th century, when the group began using the Trío language. Akuriyo does not have a writing system. Status The la ...

, also known as Akuriyó, until the late 20th century, when they began using the Trio language. Schoen had left a number of Trio Indian guides with the Akurio after their first meeting. The last native speaker is believed to have died in the first decade of the 2000s, at which time only 10 people were estimated to have Akuriyó as a second language. By 2012, only two semi-speakers remained. In December 2018, Sepi Akuriyó, one of the last surviving speakers of Akuriyó, went missing when a small plane carrying eight people disappeared during a flight over the

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...

. A search and rescue operation was called off after two weeks.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akurio People Indigenous peoples in Suriname Indigenous peoples of the Guianas Hunter-gatherers of South America Ethnic groups in Suriname