Characters
& Places
in Joe Kane's
Savages
Student-Generated
Descriptions of Characters and
Places:
(These are
from in-class brainstorms after having read chapters
1-7--pp.
1-92)
Moi
(prologue, Ch
1): The
Huaorani who was sent by the Sierra Club Legal Defense
Fund
to Washington D.C. to dispute the oil companies claims to
drill oil on their land. He is the
vice-president of ONHAE. He criticizes Kane's "metal" world.
He's naive about how the western
world operates.
Enqueri:
Kane's guide and translator on his tribes into the Amazon.
He is Huao and they call
him "Condorito" because "his head has too many ideas." He
has been schooled by missionaries
so is literate and understands both worlds well. Not
reliable or trustworthy but Kane still likes him
as a person. Not a very serious person. Steals from Kane but
not out of malice.
Labaca (Ch
1, Ch 5):
Former bishop
of Coca who befriends the Huaorani but is later killed
with 17 spears by the Tagaeri tribe when he tries to
initiate peace talks. His assistance and death
are legendary in the Garzacocha region where he spent most
of his time.
Rachel Saint
and Dayuma (Ch 1, Ch
7):
Rachel Saint is a missionary who came to Ecuador in 1955 and
became very involved in converting the tribes of the Amazon
after her
brother, also a missionary, was killed. She establishes a
Christian beachhead inside the Huaorani
territory. She went on the TV show of Billy Graham, the
evangelical preacher, with Dayuma, a
tribeswoman she converted, and became the most famous
missionary in the U.S.. She lost a lot
of her financial backing when it was discovered that she
wanted to create a Christianized
matriarchy with Dayuma as the leader. Dayuma is the first
woman Rachel Saint "saved." Saint
discovered her "living like a slave" in the Oriente and most
of Dayuma's clan had been slaughtered
by the Huaorani. Saint and Dayuma are as close as sisters
and continue working together to
convert the Huaorani.
Robert
Kennedy Jr. and S. Jacob Scherr (Ch
6):
Robert Kennedy Jr. is a staff
attorney for the National Resources Defense Council and S.
Jacob Scherr is the director of the
organization's international program. Both began fighting to
keep oil companies out and make
them pay for oil spill damages and asked Kimmerling to tour
them through the area. However,
they changed their position and began negociating with the
oil company and fired Kimmerling.
Judith
Kimmerling (Ch
6): She's
an American who was a former environmental litigator
in the office of the New York State attorney general.
Because of the ruptured pipeline, she
invested further the extent of the oil pollution and was
later deported for finding out too much.
She returns and sets up a pilot legal-aid program in several
Indian communities against Texaco.
She is never safe; her life is constantly under threat. She
worked for Kennedy and Scherr but was
fired when she refused to go along with their deal with
Conoco, and she refused to accept their
bribe to keep quiet on the issue.
The
Huaorani:
Have the reputation of being the fiercest warriors in the
Amazon. Have never
been conquered or colonized. Very confident, stoic and
self-reliant people. They don't show anger
but very rarely, and they share their goods and food freely
and equally. They are aggressive
fighters but also have an egalitarian society in which the
genders are treated equally.
The Quichua
(Ch 5): A
less aggressive tribe than the Huaorani and in many ways are
more
"advanced" in the structure of their houses and in the way
that they live with more western
conveniences like radios. They have been exposed to
westerners longer than the Huaorani have.
One settlement of theirs is on the north bank of the Napo.
They are hospitable, friendly, peaceful
and delicate. Around the Huaorani they are subservient and
fearful of them.
Joe
Kane: The
author of the book who is documenting his real life
experience with the
Huaorani in order to get more support in protecting their
lands from the oil companies.
A journalist who worked for the Rain Forest Action Network
(RAN) and goes to discover a
letter sent by ONHAE to see if its claims are authentic.
Flies to Coca, Educador, and meets the
Huaorani and sneaks in with them into the Amazon to conduct
a census to prove that the area the
oil company wants to develop is populated. He discovers the
way the Huaorani live and that
their land is contaminated by excessive oil spills and that
their survival is threatened. He moves
to Ecuador with his wife and baby to continue documenting
the Huaorani's struggle.
Quemperi
(Ch 3):
Kane and Enqueri visit his settlement which is built around
an old airstrip.
He has a generous nature but he's also a fierce warrior as
shown by when he tells of the people he
has killed. He's the leader of a clan of about 35 people. He
is strongly opposed to the Conoco
road which would go through the heart of their traditional
hunting territory.
ONHAE
(Ch 1, Ch 2, Ch
6):
Organization of Huaorani Nation of the Educadorian
Amazon. Onhae means flower in Huaorani. This is the
organization formed of Huao leaders
to oppose the exploitation of their lands and to speak for
their people. The president is Nanto,
the vice-president is Moi, the secretary is Amo and Enqueri
is the treasurer. They have no office,
no phone and no money.
The
Company (DuPont-Conoco, Texaco, Petroecuador,
and others--list on p.
15):
Conoco originally negociates to drill on Huaorani land
and begins a deal with Kennedy and Scherr but when
opposition becomes too much, pulled out.
Oil companies want to take the oil from block sixteen which
would give the equivalent of 13 days
of oil to the U.S. and they appear to not be concerned that
the destruction this would cause
to the land and the Huaorani.
Coca
(Ch 1):
The port of Coca is on the north bank of the Napo River in
the heart of the
Oriente. It is in the richest biotic zone on the planet. The
smell of raw petroleum permeates the
town. The town is small with a permanent population of
5,000. Americans and people connected
with the oil companies are always around. The Aucas are
indigenous to the vast, mostly
unchartered territory outside of Coca. There are shops
throughout Coca that sell Auca spears
and tours of Auca lands. Coca is full of oil wells and the
streets are hosed down with waste crude.
Via
Auca (Ch 2):
A road that is 60
miles long and penetrates the deepest into the forest.
Alongside the road runs a long rusty pipe carrying oil. The
pipe has many leaks and breaks. Kids
swim near where the pipe runs and are covered in oil...the
company denies any leaks are present.
Block
Sixteen (Ch 4, Ch 7):
Where Quemperi's clan
is settled. This is the area of the
Amazon where the oil companies want to drill for oil. There
are many nomadic clans settled here
but the oil company claims it is nearly uninhabited. Kane is
there initially to take a census to prove
Block 16 is
inhabited.
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