News Story: Massacres of the Indigenous Tribes in the Amazon

The indigenous tribes of the Amazon have survived three massacres due to territorial conflicts.

The first was in 1966 when rubber prospectors attacked the Cinta Larga, a tribe of indigenous people who occupy the western region of the Amazon. This massacre, also known as Massacre at Parallel 11, was a result of many violent encounters between the Cinta Larga and gold, rubber, timber and diamond miners.

The second massacre happened at the Capacete Stream in 1988 and today is considered by the Brazilian courts as genocide. Four members of the Tikuna tribe were killed, 19 wounded and 10 disappeared.

The third massacre took place in he 1980s,when forty thousand Brazilian gold-miners invaded the Yanomami tribe in northern Brazil. According to Survival International, a movement for tribal people, the miners shot them, destroyed villages and spread diseases to the tribe; this killed off 20 percent of the Yanomami in severs years.

Again in 1993, miners entered the village of Haximú, murdering 16 more Yanomami, including an infant. The Brazilian court convicted five miners guilty of genocide.

Indians were not capable of protecting themselves, so in 1970 Brazil instilled a law for their protection. However, the law changed in 1988 with the new Brazilian Constitution. “The protection of Indians no longer existed on paper,” said anthropologist Claudia Lopez.

In the 19th century, Brazil began its first project to integrate the indigenous people in the state of Pará. In 1910, military officer, Marshal Rondon, was the first director of Brazil's Indian Protection Bureau, also known as Fundação Nacional do Índio or Indian Protection Service (SPI/FUNAI). FUNAI was a protection organization for Indian well-being and culture. According to Lopez, their goal was to attract, pacify and integrate Indians. In doing so, they incorporated the indigenous peoples as border guards.

“The Indians then had to rely on the government and FUNAI for their protection,” Lopez said.

Today, there are 230 indigenous groups, making Brazil the most diverse country in the entire Amazon. “It is difficult to determine the number of Indians in Brazil,” said Lopez “Six hundred thousand people are an acceptable number”.

Indigenous people were seen as a “problem” to Brazilians. They thought there was too much land for too few Indians. However, the knowledge indigenous people have about their own territory can be used as a resource to preserve the environment.