John Whittlesey, leader of the New York Museum of Natural History's 1987 Amazon Basin Expedition, and his assistant Carlos, found an abandoned hut containing artifacts of the Kothoga tribe somewhere on the slopes of the tepui Cerro Gordo in the Upper Xingú Rainforest. At the time of the hut's discovery, the expedition had recently split up over a disagreement about whether to ascend the tepui without permission from the government of Brazil. Whittlesey, Thomas Crocker, their aide-de-camp Carlos, and a few native porters continued up the mountain while the others turned back.