 Before official contact, however, the Akuntsu experienced violent confrontations with white colonists, loggers and cattle ranchers that began entering their land in the 1970s following the construction of a highway.The seven remaining members encountered in 1995 reported an attack by armed cattle ranchers some time around 1990 in which the majority of the tribe was killed.Several of the survivors possessed scars and bullets lodged in their body when contacted and FUNAI was able to discover the site of the massacre—the Akuntsus' former village—which had been bulldozed in an attempt to cover up the evidence.