The Yanomami people first came into contact with people during the 1940's due to the intervention of the government. After that an influx of people sought to come in contact with them such as religious missionaries and the Indian Protection Service. However noble their intentions might have been, their presence there disrupted the Yanomami peoples way of life and introduced many foreign diseases to them.
In the 1970's a road was built through the Amazon northern territory wiping out 2 villages as disease ravaged them. Cattle ranchers and colonists also helped introduced alcohol and additional diseases that were never present in Yanomami villages.
During the 1980's gold miners rushed the territory of the Yanomami people in hopes of finding gold. They instigated violence and exposed the Yanomami to many diseases that they had no immunity to. The gradual decrease in Yanomami population due to gold miners lead the Brazilian government to ban miners from the Yanomami territory but illegal miners continue to disrupt the Yanamoni's way of life as they cause riots and introduce new diseases that deplete their population.
"Intruders." Survival International. www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/yanomami/intruders#main
(accessed November 7, 2012).
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