Capitães de Areia

EXCERPT - INDIANS IN AMAZONIA

HOW TO PROTECT 215 BRAZILIAN PEOPLES

By now the whole world is aware of the fact that Brazil’s rainforest is dying, yet little is known about its inhabitants. Although the conditions of the eight reservations in which the Indian tribes have still managed to survive are a complete disaster, this fact apparently does not provide enough coverage material to the international media to make the newspaper headings. Possibly, the Indians are simply too far away, their problems differ too much from ours, and the fact that an Indian tribe is becoming extinct does certainly not have anything to do with the big hole in the ozone layer. Wrong: The Indian peoples from Brazil are dying for the same reasons the rain forest does. That is, selfish companies destroy their habitat, and settlers who are constantly moving further into the jungle bring with them the “blessings” of a foreign culture. Nobody wants to acknowledge the fact that the natives and all their existential problems amount to nothing more than the sad human pendant of the dying rain forests. Yes, there is governmental support in order to aid those Indians – with this purpose, the “FUNAI” was founded thirty years ago. The FUNDAÇÃO NACIONAL DO INDIO (National Indian Foundation) is a governmental organization taking care of the native Brazilians, and try to uphold their rights. But the FUNAI is unable to cope with these tasks, since there is not enough staff, and barely not enough know-how. Brazil`s tropical rainforest is perishing and the Indios are dying with it: since 1986 over 200 natives commited suicide in the Brazilian state Mato Grosso do Sul – that is the highest rate in the country. 40% of those without hope were barely 16 years of age, many of them girls who hung themselves. Also, some of them – and the irony of this fact is a hard act to follow – drank leftovers of insect poison, that had been left on the fields or sugarcane plantations, where the Indians work as temporary employees for a pittance in order to survive. The suicides in Mato Grosso resulted in a lot of investigations, written reports, and speculations. All of the Kaiowa’s sorrows were taken into account, and each problem could be reason enough to consider suicide: 40% of the Indians living in reservations are thought to be alcoholics, yet the extent of drug abuse is unclear, and many Indians feel a great temptation to visit the nearby city Dourados (”the Golden One”) with its pubs, porn movie theatres and prostitution. Furthermore, the police in charge of “Indian issues” deals with drunken Indians by almost beating them to death; the reservations are extremely overpopulated, and most often their fields lie idle. Besides, there are protestant sects, whose numerous preachers demolish the Indian spirit. This goes perfectly along with the concept of the “low-brow Indian”, the “bicho-do-mato”, or “beast from the woods”, like the gold-diggers would call them…