Indigenous peoples in Brazil

 

Indigenous peoples

Around 735.000 indigenous people are living in Brazil.

These indigenous peoples are living in different ways: some are living in their own areas, some are living in the city, others are not been contacted yet and live completely isolated. There are also persons who are just now identifying themselves as indigenous people.

They are divided in 235 different peoples and staying in 24 of the 27 states of Brazil.

At the moment there are still 170 different languages spoken by these peoples.

History

The Indigenous peoples in Brazil comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who inhabited the country´s present territory prior to its discovery by Europeans around 1500.

At the time of European discovery, the indigenous peoples were traditionally mostly semi-nomadic tribes who subsisted on hunting, fishing, gathering, and migrant agriculture. Many of the estimated 2000 nations and peoples that existed in 1500 died out as a consequence of the European settlement (diseases, murder, slavery), and many were assimilated into the Brazilian population. The indigenous population has declined from a pre-Columbian high of an estimated 4-6 million to just 100.000 in 1950 – probably one of the largest genocides in human history.

Land situation

For indigenous people land is very important. They often refer to it as their mother. Land gives them water, food, a place to live. Without land there is no life. The Constitution of Brazil, of 1988, recognized the original right over the lands that indigenous peoples have traditionally occupied. It also assured indigenous peoples a respect for their social organization, customs, languages, beliefs and traditions. In Brazil there are at the moment 851 indigenous areas. Of those 851 only 325 areas are officially registered.

The process of registering the indigenous areas consists of five stages:

Identification: study by a working group of Funai (the National Governmental Council on Indigenous Issues) of the original borders (anthropological studies, legal and historical documents, conversations, archaeology, sociology etcetera)

The report that follows out of the studies has to be approved by the president of Funai. After publication of a summary of the report in the State Newspaper anyone interested can dispute the report of Funai up to 90 days. Then Funai has 60 days to elaborate opinions about the arguments of the interested and hand the report over to the Ministry of Justice.

Declaration: the Ministry of Justice has 30 days to declare the size of the indigenous area.

Demarcation: physical delimitation of the indigenous area.

Homologation: the President of the Republic puts his signature to approve the demarcation.

Registration: the indigenous area is officially registered in the notary office (within a maximum of 30 days after homologation).

In Brazil the land situation is as follows (06th of December 2006):

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The numbers are clear. There is still a long way ahead to finish the great promise of the Constitution. At the moment there are still numerous charges against farmers, national and foreign companies for invading indigenous land, causing deforestation, removal of timber, taking over the land for cattle raising, for planting rice and soy, for sewage dumping, appropriation of traditional knowledge, among other destructive projects.

The problems in practice

The law of recognizing the indigenous land is clear, but in practice we can unfortunately notice many problems.

Registered: Awa-Guajá >> invasions and a railway

The Awa-Guajá people live in the state Maranhão, in the north of Brazil, east part of the Amazon. Their land is registered. But the following sentence in their own language says enough: Iwy karai are kaá rehe anã! The white man is back in our forest!

The Awa-Guajá have only been discovered by society in 1973. Until that time they were living in the wood without being seen by other people. After the first contact a process of land granting started, and since the eighties Funai has put the Awá in special indigenous areas. There are signs that there is still a group of around 30 Awa-people in the wood, who don´t want to have contact with other people.

One of the most important problem is that there is no security of the land, so invaders are entering the indigenous areas all the time without any difficulty. There are wood companies, fishermen and hunters. Deforesting and less animals are the results. Because of this the Awá have more and more problems to find enough food (hunting animals, fishing, and collecting fruits and seeds).

Besides these invasions there is a railway crossing the indigenous area. This railway is of the company Vale Rio do Doce, one of the biggest metal and mining company in the world. The railway made it easier for people to enter these devastated forests which caused more invasions and because of the noise of the trains (every 30 minutes there is one passing by, full of steel) the animals again are leaving the forest.

REGISTERED LAND IS NO GUARANTEE TO LIVE.

Homologated: Guarani-Kaiowá >> evicted

In March 2005 the Guarani-Kaiowá could finally celebrate the homologation of the area called Nhande Ru Marangatú. It had been a long fight and finally President Lula had put his signature: Nhande Ru Marangatú had been homologated. But the victory didn’t last for a long time. Ranchers of the area had contested the recognition in Brazil’s court and succeeded. On the 15th of December a Federal Police force of more then 100 men arrived early morning to evict the group of around 60 Guarani-Kaiowá. No direct violence was used, but the impact on the community was enormous: "Helicopters flew very low over the area. Children were screaming and crying. Everyone was standing on the side of the road in the baking sun. After the police went away, the ranchers burned all our houses, food crops and documents. The only things we have left are the clothes on our bodies.”

Ten days after the eviction another cruel act happened. On Christmas Eve an important indigenous leader of the Guarani Kaiowá was shot dead by an employee of a private security firm. Until now nobody has been put in prison for this cowardice act. The situation of the Guarani Kaiowá is very worrisome. After the eviction three children have died of malnutrition. The land recognition process is waiting for the next step by Supreme Court. Until now nothing has happened.

Declared: Arara people >> reducing the indigenous land

The Arara people, also known as the Ugorogmo, were contacted in 1980. The demarcation of their area, called Cachoeira Seca, has been dragging on since 1993, when it was declared. From 1996, countless legal contestations have paralyzed the demarcation process. In 2004, a new group was designated to carry out anthropological and land studies. These studies were ready in 2005 and are since then at the office of Funai.

In the case of the Cachoeira Seca land, the government has not only acted very slowly, but it is also trying to convince the indigenous people to accept a reduction of their territory, taking advantage of the indigenous people’s urgency to see their territory guaranteed.

The experience of other indigenous peoples who have been through similar situations shows that agreements to reduce the lands do not guarantee that the demarcation process will move on quickly after that. There are several examples where territory has been reduced by a declaratory government order, but after this agreement, the demarcation process had still not been concluded.

 

The Arara have only recently been contacted by non-indigenous society. In the 1940s, they were considered extinct but, in 1970, the non-indigenous paths reached the places where the Arara used to live, in isolation. During the 1980s, three groups of Arara, numbering around 100 people were found. This contact, which took place during the construction of the Transamazonian Highway, brought the indigenous people several diseases like influenza and diarrhoea, reducing the population even more. Only a few families survived and they started to dispute their right to live on their land with timber merchants, ranchers and land grabbers. Nowadays, hundreds of roads, used to transport timber, cross through the land of this people, who will also be indirectly affected by the Belo Monte dam.

Identified: Tupinikim/Guarani >> fighting against a multinational

The Tupinikim and Guarani people are fighting against the multinational Aracruz, the biggest cellulose producer in the world. Cellulose is the raw material used in the paper industry and it is extracted from wood, in this case eucalyptus wood, because this tree is growing very fast. Aracruz has in the east part of Brazil (states Espirito Santo, Bahia, Minas Gerais) 235.000 hectares of eucalyptus. Only one word can serve for this: monoculture.

The conflict between Aracruz and the Tupinikim and Guarani Indians is going on for more then 30 years. Aracruz is occupying almost 8.000 hectares of indigenous land in the state of Espirito Santo, central east of Brazil. The other part, around 3.500 hectares, is in hand of the indigenous communities. The indigenous people claim that they always have lived in this area and that Aracruz invaded their land, but Aracruz is denying that there were Indians when they started their company in the sixties.

Funai, the National Governmental Council on Indigenous Issues, has done four identifying studies in the last years, which all report that the 8.000 hectares is indigenous land. The decision is now in hands of the Ministry of Justice, to declare the land. The period to respond, 30 days, has already been passed. In meanwhile Aracruz started practicing the crime of ethnical prejudice and racism against the Tupinikim/Guarani communities by spreading around racist material at schools, putting large outdoors with racists sentences and publishing articles in the newspaper.

About 50 Tupinikim and Guarani Indians, including several chiefs and leaders, from the Espirito Santo state, arrived on 16 January 2007, in the Brazilian federal capital Brasília to demand from the government a consent about the edition of the demarcation decree of their lands. In December last year, 18 chiefs and leaders went to the Brazilian capital expecting a meeting with the Minister of Justice, Márcio Thomas Bastos, as part of the agreement with Funai to free, on 13 December 2006, the by them occupied harbor of export of Aracruz Celulose, the invader of the indigenous lands. However, during the four days that the Indians stayed in Brasília, they were not received by the Minister, neither by his assistants. They also did not succeed in getting a copy of their demarcation process, a right assured to them according to decree 1.775/96, par. 3: "The indigenous group involved, representing their own forms, will participate in the procedure in all its phases”.

On the 1st day, in the morning, the main avenue in front of the Ministries, was blocked during five minutes. Representatives of the Ministry of Justice declared that the Minister would not receive the Indians. Later on this day, the Indians went to the Ministry in order to present a petition to the Minister, demanding him to edit without further delay, the demarcation decree, and responding some of the contents of the internal opinion paper of the Juridical Consultancy (Consultoria juridica) of the Ministry of Justice, of which they got a copy.

On the 2nd day, in the morning, representatives of the Ministry of Justice and the FUNAI, came to talk with the Indians in the tents camp in front of the Ministry. They explained that the decision about the demarcation had not been taken yet because the Indians would have broken the agreement with the government. In other words, the Indians are guilty for the delay in the decision-making, while it was the Minister of Justice who promised to demarcate the lands still in 2006! This is what the Indians responded, and they also made clear that their protest actions are only a result of this lack of action of the government. So who broke the agreement is the government.

Another fact that needs to be mentioned is the illegal and coward action of the Federal Police, together with Aracruz Celulose, in the beginning of 2006. On the 20th January two indigenous villages were destroyed and 13 indigenous people were wounded; the Federal Public Prosecution Service investigated the many illegalities in this operation and is processing the Brazilian State to repair the physical and moral damages caused to the indigenous communities..

To be identified: Tumbalalá >> environmental issues

In October 2004 the identifying studies of the Tumbalalá land were delivered to Funai but until now it had still not been submitted for publication by this organization. The Tumbalalá land is situated in the north of Bahia, east Brazil, and according to Cícero Marinheiro, a leader of the Tumbalalá, the delay in forwarding the evaluation of the report is related to the interests that the São Francisco Hydroelectric Company (Chesf) has in constructing dams in the River São Francisco. Chesf is the Federal Government company with the largest electrical power generating capacity in the country. The Tumbalalá, who live on the banks of the River São Francisco, in Bahia, have been fighting for the rights to their land for years. In 2003, Funai, after opposing acceptance of the group as indigenous, set up a group to identify their land. Nowadays, around 450 squatters live on the indigenous lands, many of which are farmers who were affected by the dams that were installed in farming villages by Chesf. The building of the dams in the river, have altered people’s food production system a lot, with all the consequences mentioned.

When the identification studies are not published by Funai in the official state newspaper, the process is paralyzed and the indigenous land is still considered ´to be identified´.

Without any process: 12 indigenous peoples >> not recognized as indigenous

In the North of Brazil on the banks of the rivers Tapajós and Arapiuns are living the following indigenous peoples: Tupinambá, Arapium, Jaraqui, Tupaiu, Tapajó, Arara Vermelha, Cara Preta, Maytapu, Munduruku, Borary, Apiaka and Kumaruara. They stay on their traditional lands, but these are not officially recognized until now, and even worse, not one process has been started yet.

In 2001 Funai started with identification studies in two indigenous villages, but the reports have never been published. So in reality there is not one process started yet.

Because of this there is no basic health service for the approximately 7000 indigenous people, which each year causes several unnecessary deaths, for example because of snakebites. The nearest city is far away, which means a trip of 12 to 24 hours in small overloaded boats. Ill people many times not survive this.

Beside this the area where these indigenous peoples are living is surrounded by large soya plantations that are expanding every day more and more. Also there are invasions of lodging companies and the area is becoming very popular for tourism.

Because the whole regularization process is paralyzed, there is not one guarantee for the indigenous peoples that their rights are being protected.

Reserved: Krahô-Kanela >> Bureaucracy

After living as pilgrims for three decades, the Krahô-Kanela have been, since 2001, confined to a house built in an old garbage dump site in the city of Gurupi, state of Tocantins, which lacks sanitary facilities and where they are exposed to diseases and socially degrading conditions which also affect their family structure as a result of their confinement.

 

In August 2006, the presidents of Funai and Incra (National Land Reform Institute) signed finally a joint administrative ruling expropriating two farms in the Krahô-Kanela land, which they now refer to as "Mata Alagada", located in the municipality of Lagoa da Confusão, state of Tocantins.

Hereafter Funai did not issue the expropriation request for months which caused a delay again. Finally on December 8 a decree was published in the Official Gazette. Again it is up to Funai now to actually buy the land. The money is already released by Incra, but until no action of Funai.

 

Violence against indigenous people

One alarming tendency can be seen in the last years: the violence committed by indigenous people against members of their own communities. This is an obvious process of internalizing the violence surrounding the indigenous communities, and a result of the disintegration of their communal way of life brought about by the loss of their traditional land and the total lack of perspective for survival.

There is a bunch of causes why there is violence against the indigenous peoples of Brazil. Some conclusions:

Those who invade indigenous territories are generally farmers and their hired gunmen, companies involved in timber extraction, hunters and fishermen, organized in armed groups that invade the indigenous land, murder, wound, threaten, rape and rob the indigenous communities.

The Brazilian government fails to guarantee the right to land of the indigenous populations, to life, to basic and specialized health care, to defend against their aggressors, and protection of their material and cultural assets.

The military and federal police who, empowered by the decisions of local judges, force the displacement of indigenous communities.

State agents hold stereotypical and discriminatory views about indigenous communities and violate their rights.

 

CIMI

Cimi stands for Conselho Indigenista Missionário, an organization that supports the struggle of the indigenous peoples in Brazil. This struggle is mainly concentrated on land issues. Because land is central for the well-being and survival of Brazils indigenous population.

Cimi was created in 1972 by the National Confederation of the Bishops of Brazil (CNBB). Dialogue with the indigenous cultures is the base of the missionary work of Cimi. To learn about these cultures is important in order to be able to respect these cultures. People who are working for Cimi live together with the indigenous peoples on every moment, especially during the fight for their rights.

The objective of CIMI was defined in 1995 as follows:

"Driven by our faith in the gospel of life, justice and solidarity and faced with the aggressions of the neo liberal model, we decided to intensify our support and presence with indigenous peoples, communities and organizations and intervene in Brazilian society as their allies, strengthening the process of autonomy of these people in the construction of an alternative, multiethnic, popular and democratic project.”

The work of Cimi is based on the following principles:

Respect for indigenous diversity in its ethnic-cultural and historical plurality and the value of the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples;

The indigenous people as prime actors and Cimi as an ally in the fight to guarantee their historical rights;

The choice for the indigenous cause, and the commitment with it, within a broader perspective of building a society based on democracy, justice, solidarity, multi-ethnicities and multi-cultures.

Cimi believes that the indigenous people can inspire the world of today, review the meaning, the history, and social, political and economic practices within this world.

How Cimi works

More than 300 persons, laymen and religious, are working with indigenous people throughout the entire country. They are divided in 102 teams, supported by eleven regional offices and a National Secretariat in the capital Brasília.

The Secretariat assists with methodological, political, legal, theological and anthropological matters. The head office in Brasília consists of a juridical, a communication and a documentation department. The theological department is situated in São Paulo. At the head office the magazine ´Porantim´ is published for already more than 30 years.

Every two years there is a meeting of the General Assembly, where the priorities of Cimi are defined. The directorship is composed of the eleven coordinators of the regional offices and a Presidency. This presidency consists of a president (a bishop chosen by CNBB), a vice-president and two secretaries.

Cimi aims to work together with the catholic church, the state and the society. They want to unify the missionary work with the indigenous people, to intervene in Legal, Executive and Judicial acts and to stimulate different social movements to show solidarity with the indigenous issue.

Through its National Secretariat and the regional offices, Cimi supports indigenous peoples and their organizations in the following subjects:

1. Land

For all indigenous people land is a condition for life and a full accomplishment of the culture. Priority of Cimi is to support the fight to recuperate, demarcate and guarantee the completeness of the indigenous territories.

2. Indigenous movement

There are many organizations, articulations and mobilizations, together called the Indigenous Movement, which are helping to defend the indigenous rights. It is a place for building common proposals and consolidating alliances. Cimi participates in this Movement by informing, discussing, and supporting.

3. Alliances

It is necessary to transform Brazilian society, building a new social order, based on solidarity, respect for human dignity and ethnic and cultural diversity. For this reason Cimi establishes alliances with sectors of civil society, Latin-American organizations, solidarity groups and international cooperation.

4. Formation to serve the autonomy of indigenous people

Cimi sees this formation as an integral process, which takes place during the work itself. It is constructed together with each community, the people and the indigenous organization. There is a permanent reflection on the challenges, the perspectives and the directions.

5. Education, health and self-sustainability

For these three dimensions Cimi finds it important to recognize and value the characteristic ways of all different indigenous peoples to build their own lives. It is necessary to comprehend deeply and to respect radically their different visions on the world, their own systems of health care and education, and their proposals for self-sustainability. The way Cimi works in the villages and in the sphere of the public power when discussing the planning of public policies, has this perspective as a condition.

6. Intercultural and inter-religious dialogue

Cimi wants to establish a dialogue, based on mutual respect and equality among people and cultures. The religious dimension is present in all of the aspects of the lives of indigenous people, in their ways of being, thinking, living and interacting. The inter-religious dialogue estimates the deep respect for the diverse conceptions of the sacred one, the origin and the meaning of the human life and the valuation of the multiple forms of faith and beliefs. It is the engine of their life, helping them to find alternatives for the actual neo liberal project.

7. Indians in urban centers

The intense and constant pressures upon indigenous cultures and territories result in constant migration of indigenous families or even entire indigenous peoples. Many indigenous people have moved to cities, in search of better living conditions. This is a new challenge for Cimi: to understand this reality and initiate a dialogue, guaranteeing the rights and articulating the struggles to a broader indigenous issue.

 

</bContact us</b>>

Cimi National Secretariat

SDS Edifício Venâncio III, salas 309/314

Brasília DF - CEP 70393-902

Tel.: 55 61 3227582, Fax: 55 61 2259401

E-mail: nacional@cimi.org.br (Portuguese)

G.vanderpas@cmc.nu (English)