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                    <text>S A I I C

II •••
AS USUAL, WE HAVE been extremely
busy here at SAIIC. We went through a
difficult period but we are confident in
the future of our organization. Recently
we had visitors from South and Meso
America. Many of these visitors were here
for the Abya Yala Fund board meeting,
which was held in the beginning of May.
ALICIA CANAVIRI, AN AYMARA
leader from Bolivia and Director of
CDIMA, and President of Abya Yala
Fund, was visiting the office in May. We
conducted an interview with Alicia
Canaviri about her experiences working
with indigenous communities in her
country.
Alicia works to empower
indigenous women and young people by
urging them to attain the skills and confidence they need to become leaders in the
fight to preserve their culture and their
land. Look for the interview in the next
issue of Abya Yala News.
ROBERTO COBARiA, A REPRESENTATIVE of the UWA people from
Colombia, toured the United States in
May, sponsored by the Amazon Coallition
and RAN, SAIIC, and Abya Yala Fund, to
denounce the proposed oil exploration
by the Occidental Petroleum Company in
their territory. He gave several presentations and a press conference while he was
in the Bay Area. We had the opportunity
to interview him about the UWA culture,
their values and their role as protectors of
Mother Earth.
AMALIA DIXON, WHO HAS been the
Director of SAIIC for almost two years, is
moving forward. Amalia will remain an
active board member of SAil C. She is also
part of the Abya Yala Fund Board of
Directors. Amalia returned recently
from the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua,
where she had a marvelous time with her
family and friends. During her trip to
Nicaragua she visited the indigenous
communities and organizations on the
Atlantic Coast. She gave a presentation in
La Perra Cultural Center to give an update
on Nicaragua. We thank Amalia deeply
for all the hard work she did at SAIIC as
Director.

lAURA SORIANO, A MIXTEC-ZAPOTEC
from Oaxaca, Mexico, has been working
with SAIIC as the coordinator for SAIIC
radio program, "Indigenous Voices". We
have been sending the radio program to
about 110 indigenous radio stations in
Latin America. We have received wonderful letters of support from various radio
stations across Latin America. We
received news that our tapes have been
played in community assemblies and
under their special "international news"
heading in their local radio programs.
She has also been busy coordinating the
SAIIC office since Amalia left. In addition to all this, Laura is currently doing a
year apprenticeship at KPFA in Berkeley,
where she is learning radio production
and engineering.
JESS FALKENHAGEN, FROM
CONNECTICUT moved to the Bay
Area about six months ago. She has been
teaching part-time and working at SAIIC
as an intern. Jess majored in SocioCultural Anthropology with a concentration in Native American Studies and has
always been active in indigenous rights
work. She has traveled extensively
throughout Mexico and Central America.
Jess has been a writer for the Abya Yala
News and has also worked on urgent
action letter writing campaigns. We
appreciate deeply all the hard workJess is
doing for SAIIC.
SOSHANA SPECTOR, CAME ALL the
way from the University of Antioch in
Ohio, where she is majoring in Peace
Studies, to do a full time internship for a
month with SAIIC. Soshana has been
focusing on a special radio program project on indigenous human rights. This
new project is concerned with how
Globalization and current economic policies are violating indigenous human
rights. Soshana has also been working on
writing urgent actions. We greatly appreciate Soshana's commitment and the hard
work she has put in at SAIIC.

in International Relations with a focus on
human rights. He found out about SAIIC
from the University of Groningen internship coordinator. While in school, Paulus
wrote about the influence of human
rights organizations within the United
Nations and about the connection
between economic development and
human rights within the World Bank. His
interest in the role of indigenous human
rights organizations in the United
Nations led him to SAIIC. We warmly
welcome Paulus to SAIIC!!
SPECIAL THANKS TO: David Rothschild,
the former administrative and fundraising coordinator, for his dedication to the
work of SAIIC. We will miss him and
wish him luck in his new endeavor at the
Amazon Coalition.
Gilles Combrisson, the former journal
coordinator, for his hard work on Abya
Yala News. We wish him the best in the
future.
Sibylle Schult, for her valuable work in
grant writing and development for SAil C.
We welcome her and appreciate all that
she is bringing to SAIIC.
Edgar Ayala, a professional graphic
designer, who has generously taken on
the final stages on the journal production. We appreciate his helping us at a
time when we needed his expertise and
support. We couldn't have completed
this issue without you!
SPECIAL THANKS TO: Adriana Ballen
Jefferey Bronfman, Maya Miller, Victoria
R. Ward, and KPFA's Samuel Guia for his
valuable contribution as technician of
SAIIC's radio program.
AND TO ALL SAIIC'S members, donors
and supporters, who have been patient in
waiting for this issue of Abya Yala News .
We appreciate your patience and apologize for the delay.

PAULUS BOUMA, RECENTLY ARRIVED
from the Netherlands to be with us for six
months as an intern. Paulus is majoring

--

Vol. 10 No.3

39

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                    <text>-Bo o

li
By 'Wii Muk'Willixw (Art Wilson).
Published by New Society Publishers, PO
Box 189, Gabriola Island, BCVOR IXO,
Canada. 1996.
his book is a series of forty brief
but compelling stories starting
with the Gitxsan Native Nation
from British Columbia, of which the
author is a hereditary leader. From there,
the author focuses on the struggles of

Indian Peoples throughout Canada, the
US, and all the Americas as well as other
World Indigenous First Peoples.
Each page of text faces the author's
extraordinary artwork. In the molding of
traditional Northwest Coast X-ray depiction of deep red and black animals and
spirits, the images leap out with a contemporary twist, speaking of issues, asking for justice from injustice seen today
The past meets the present and begs us to
consider the future of all, and of Mother
Earth.

by Nathan Muus

An environmental Treatise From Costa
Rica's Kekoldi Indigenous Reserve by
juanita Sanchez, Gloria Mayorga and
Paula Palmer: Published in San jose, Costa
Rica,1993
f we want to save tropical rainforests,
will find our best teachers among
the rainforests'indigenous inhabitants.
For centuries, the indigenous people who
Vol. 10 No.3

K

REV!EW

I
live in rainforests have known how to use non-Indian squatters, poachers and comrainforest resources without damaging mercial enterprises, the Kekoldi people
the ecosystem. Their whole way of life-- have initiated a three part strategy First,
beliefs about God and Nature, agricultur- they are completing land tenure and land
al parctices, handicrafs and social rela- use studies which are needed as a basis
tions --works to preserve the biological for legal enforcement of their land rights.
Second, they are educating the public
diversity of their forest home.
about
their
In a unique
book,
now This illustration by l&lt;ekoldi artisan
way of life in
Juanita Sanchez, depicts the
available
in
the rainforest
ceremony that is performed
English,
the
and their strugwhen an indigenous person is
people of Costa
gle to preserve
about to see the sea for the first
Rica's Kekoldi
it.; Taking Care
time in his or her life.
Indian Reserve
of Sibo's Gifts,
share the tradiin
Spanish,
tional knowland
English
edge
that
Dutch editions,
defines them as
is part of that
effort.. Third,
a people who
"take care of
they are raising
Sibo's gifts," the
funds to purchase deforestgifts of forest
flora and fauna.
ed lands from
As they tell how
non-indian
their lives and
landholders
livelihoods depend on rainforest within the boundaries of their reserve, so
resources, they appeal to us all to support that they can reforest these properties.
them in their struggle for the survival of With income from the sale of Taking Care
their forests and their way of life.
of Sibos Gifts, the Kekoldi people have
already purchased three properties and
reforested critical watershed areas.
In Taking Care of Sibo's Gifts, the
Kekoldi people show how the rainforest
provides them with almost everything
they need to live, as long as they respect
Sibo's laws governing the use of natural
resources. The book is illustrated with
black and white photographs, maps, and
line drawings by Kekoldi artisan jaunita
Sanchez, who normally carves her pictures on dried gourds. Income from book
sales goes directly to the kekoldi people,
to support their rainforest conservation
efforts and their cultural school.
This book is a unique resoeuce for
teachers and students of cultural anthropology, social ecology, environmet and
multicultural education. It can be ordered
at the following address (checks made to
Paula Palmer), for $12/each; $11/each
North American sociologist Paula with orders of 5 or more,shipping includPalmer collaborated with two indigenous ed. Please specify the English or Spanish
women to write this book as part of a edition.
long-term project sponsored by the tribal
Paula Palmer
council of the Kekoldi Indian Reserve. To
1103 Linden Ave. Boulder, CO 80304
protect their forests from destruction by

37

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                    <text>I
I

H

U M A N

RIGHTS

committed at this moment call for urgent
action. Death threats, illegal evictions,
beatings, rapes and political shootings
continue in El Salvador despite the peace
that was promised in Chapultapec in
1992 (the El Salvador Accords).
Indigenous Salvadorans continue to be
threatened with violence by the National
Civilian Police (PNC), the courts, and
those connected with the ARENA party
now in power. Letters from the United
States have proven to have helped ANIS
in the past. The February 18, 1997, letter
from US Congressmen john Moakley and
james McGovern resulted in the Esquino
Lisco family returning to their home,

although armed officials came searching
for the leader the following morning.,.

Please send letters by fax to the Salvadoran
authorities urging them to respect the fundamental human rights of the Indigenous communities (Ndhuat, Lenca, Pipiles, Pokomames,
U1uas and Maya people) in El Salvador and
denouncing the repression and grave injustices committed against them by some members of the ARENA party. Please send your
letters to the following addresses:
Dr. Armando Calderon Sol, Presidente de Ia
republica de El Salvador; FAX 503-271-0950
Lie. Mario Acosta Oertel, Ministerio del
Interior, Centro de Gobierno San Salvador, El
Honduran Red Cross, the Ministry of
Public Health and private doctors, as
well as the construction of latrines,
there were no outbreaks of communicable diseases.

After eight days of negotiation, at
4:00 am just five hours before the
planned signing of an agreement ,
2,000 well-armed Honduran soldiers
and police attacked an encampment of
indigenous and black protesters. The
demonstrators were gathered outside
of the Honduran Presidential Palace in
Tegucigalpa to protest the politically
motivated assassinations of Chortis'
leaders, Candido Amador and Ovidio
Perez, and to demand the return of
indigenous lands. Abiding by their
convictions, the demonstrators refused
to leave until an agreement was signed
and continued their peaceful protest
despite violent assault from the government.
Over four thousand people from
seven Honduran indigenous and black
groups: Chortis, Lenca, Pech, Tolupan,
Miskito, black English speaking Creoles
and Garifuna arrived in Tegucigalpa as
part of the "Great Indigenous and
Black Mobilization" on May 5, 1997.
In the camp, food was scarce and
health care inadequate. Many people
suffered from stress, heat exhaustion,
heart conditions, and arthritis. Still,
Hospital Escuela, only a mile away,
refused to provide the pilgrims with
essential medical treatment. The public health risks were comparable to
those of many poor Honduran communities. Luckily, /with the arrival of the

36

In the negotiating room, things
appeared to be moving swiftly. By the
second day, the government had
already agreed to conduct a full internal investigation into the assassinations
of Amador and Perez. The government
was slow to comply with Articles 13
through 19 of Convention 169 of the
International Labor Organization (ILO),
which demands the return of indigenous lands and respect for indigenous
cultures.
This refusal to concede
blocked negotiations for eight days.
Pastor Fasquelle, chief government
negotiator, finally presented an agreement directly to the encampment.
Offering too little land and not enough
guarantees, the proposal met with
fierce opposition and was rejected in
an oral vote. Finally, an agreement was
reached that included a stricter time
table to restore indigenous land and
stronger guarantees of government
compliance.
Five hours before the agreement
was to be signed at 9 a.m. on May
11th, 1,500 soldiers and 500 police
descended upon the camp armed with
riot gear and rifles, including M 16's
and M60's (large tripod-style machine
guns). Unarmed men, women, and
children assembled peacefully in front
of Presidential Palace found themselves
trying to avoids the blows of their
attackers. One pregnant woman was
brutally beaten, and many children
were trampled by police. Large pots of
cold water were poured over protesters
and most of their possessions were
destroyed. Michael Marsh, an interna-

Salvador; FAX 503-271-2484
Ambassador of El Salvador Ana Cristina Sol,
Embassy of El Salvador, 2308 California St.
NW Washington, DC 20008; FAX 202-3280563

Send copies to: Dra. Victoria Marina
Velasquez de Aviles, Procuradora para Ia
defensa de los derechos humanos de El
Salvador, 9a. Avenida Nte. y Calle Poniente,
Edificio Amsa No. 535, San Salvador, El
Salvador
Adrian Esquino Lisco, Asociaci6n Nacional
Indigena Salvadorena ANIS, calle Obispo
Marroquin Oficina Antigua Aduana Ferrea
5-l Sonsonate, El Salvador; FAX 011-503451-0742
tional observer, personally witnessed
soldiers violently knocking over women
with children in their arms.
The pilgrims relocated a mile away
at a more precarious site. Fast moving
cars encircled the encampment, hitting
one protester. Most of their food and
belongings had been confiscated, and
authorities refused to release them.
These government actions incited public outrage. Hundreds of students and
other demonstrators flocked to the
capital equipped with food, clothing,
and other supplies.
It was two days before negotiations
formally resumed. After the resignation of Pastor Fasquelle from the government negotiating team, progress
was made toward resolving the crisis.
The accord was signed on May 14th
between President Reina and the
indigenous delegation representing the
demonstrators. In addition to promising a full investigation into the assassinations, the agreement also includes
the return of 9,000 hectares of land,
the instatement of human rights
observers in Copan and Ocotepeque,
where many indigenous people have
received threats or been attacked by
wealthy landowners, transportation to
return the pilgrims to their communities of origin, assurances to fulfill its
obligations from past treaties. The
negotiators also agreed to instate a
commission of Guarantors to guarantee the fulfillment of this agreement.
The commission will work with indigenous groups and government agencies
to insure compliance of the agreement.

Information for this article from:
www.ibw.com.ni/-cgenica
for further information write:
andres%acceso@sdnhon. org. hn
Abya Yala News

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                    <text>HU

M A N

RIGHTS

•
•

I
@&gt;

I
eginning on january 31 and
continuing the following day,
30 Indigenous families were
forcibly evicted from their
homes and land in the community of Santa julia del canton Las
Hojas, located in the San Antonio del
Monte municipality in the Sonsonate
region of El Salvador. At 11:30 on
january 31, 19 units of the PNC (Policia
Nacional Civil) invaded the Santa julia
Hacienda accompanied by the district's
judge, a human rights delegate, and a
representative from the government. Also
accompanying the police force were 200
soldiers, who remained posted around
the territory throughout the day and
night of the 31.
By the following day the village was
surrounded by 25 police units and 500
soldiers including a 100-strong riot squad
armed with tear gas. Firefighters, the
Salvadoran Red Cross, and two ten-ton
trucks without plates had arrived on the
scene. The riot squad threatened to
thrown tear gas in the homes in an effort
to dislodge their inhabitants. Armed personnel proceeded to harass the cooperative's remaining inhabitants until dawn,
removing them from their homes and
loading each family's personal belongings
into trucks bound for unknown destinations. Once the buildings were evacuated
they were immediately destroyed and the
land set on fire.
These kinds of violent attacks and flagrant abuses of human rights have intensified over the last few months. On
February 5, 1997, Chief Adrian Esquino
Lisco, leader of the National Association
of Indigenous Salvadorans CANIS) and his
family were forced, under threat of death,
from their home in Comarca San Ramon
by Arena party activists Jorge Ruiz
Camacho and Marta Benavides. Chief
Lisco fled to the ANIS offices in
Sonsonate, which are being patrolled by
Death Squad members and are scheduled
for impoundment. Members of ANIS
have received death threats, have been
~--····-·~··

severely beaten, and have witnessed their
family members being raped and tortured
and their homes bulldozed and burned.
On November 3, 1996, the jaguar
Battalion death squad murdered the
Vasquez Ramirez family of San Miguelo,
Sonsonate, who were members of ANIS.
Using machetes the squad killed all eight
family members, four children and three
women among them. The home of
Margarita Esquino, one of the leaders of
ANIS now living in the United States
because of constant threats, was bombed.
He was brutally beaten
lETTERS FROM THE
and his wife
UNITED STATES HAVE
and young
niece were
PROVEN TO HAVE
raped
by
HELPED ANIS IN THE
armed men.
THE
18,
As of March
3,
1997,
1997,lETTER
US
ANIS memCONGRESSMEN
bers have
been given
MOAKlEY AND
72 hours to
RESUlTED
completely
evacuate
IN THE ESQUINO liSCO
their homes
FAMilY
and offices
or they will THEIR
be evicted
OFFICIAlS CAME
by armed
SEARCHING FOR THE
guards.
The sitlEADER THE FOllOWuation
in
lNG MORNING.
Sonsonate
has a long,
unhappy history. According to ANIS,
these lands were purchased more than
ten years ago by ANIS for its cooperative,
at that time UCESISTA, with the help of
loans from the Banco del Fomento
Agropecuario and the Caja de Credito de
Izalco, which were canceled five years
later. After this date, members of the
Indigenous cooperative, UCESISTA, continued to work on this land until internal
political differences drove a wedge
between them. Influenced by the ruling

~-----~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Vol. 10 No.3

ARENA party, some of the families separated themselves from ANIS and identified themselves as the true UCESISTA
members. Those who remained continued to work the land of the San Ramon
and Santa julia Hacienda in the Las Hojas
region of Sonsonate where they suffered
all types of tortures from various members of the ARENA party operating in
Sonsonate, including the brutal massacre
in 1983 in the Las Hojas cooperative of
74 innocent people. In the eyes of ANIS,
these ARENA party members have
manipulated the members of the original
Indigenous cooperative UCESISTA by
fomenting confrontation and instigating
conflict and division within the
Indigenous community, actions that have
already cost many lives and the eviction
of 30 families from the Santa julia cooperative.
The Sonsonate authorities of the
Arena party allege that the legitimate proprietors of this land are the members of
the UCESISTA cooperative. On two previous occasions efforts to evict the families were halted when the members of
ANIS presented documents to the court
of San Antonio del Monte which demonstrated that they were in fact the legal
owners of this property The court was in
the process of reviewing the documents
before making a final decision when the
primary judge of Sonsonate gave the
order to evict the inhabitants of the Santa
julia cooperative. Today these families
remain homeless, exposed to the elements, and are not being given any attention. Some have found refuge in the
homes of families in San Ramon, who are
soon to be the next victims of eviction
under an order from the same judge. The
community of San Ramon is scheduled
for eviction on March 4, 1997.
Representatives of the ARENA party have
promised the Indigenous lands, including
those parcels which ANIS has bought and
has titles for, to other parties.
The situation in Sonsonate seems to
be deteriorating daily The atrocities being
Continue on page 36

-~~~~~~-

35

�I
I

H

U M A N

RIGHTS

committed at this moment call for urgent
action. Death threats, illegal evictions,
beatings, rapes and political shootings
continue in El Salvador despite the peace
that was promised in Chapultapec in
1992 (the El Salvador Accords).
Indigenous Salvadorans continue to be
threatened with violence by the National
Civilian Police (PNC), the courts, and
those connected with the ARENA party
now in power. Letters from the United
States have proven to have helped ANIS
in the past. The February 18, 1997, letter
from US Congressmen john Moakley and
james McGovern resulted in the Esquino
Lisco family returning to their home,

although armed officials came searching
for the leader the following morning.,.

Please send letters by fax to the Salvadoran
authorities urging them to respect the fundamental human rights of the Indigenous communities (Ndhuat, Lenca, Pipiles, Pokomames,
U1uas and Maya people) in El Salvador and
denouncing the repression and grave injustices committed against them by some members of the ARENA party. Please send your
letters to the following addresses:
Dr. Armando Calderon Sol, Presidente de Ia
republica de El Salvador; FAX 503-271-0950
Lie. Mario Acosta Oertel, Ministerio del
Interior, Centro de Gobierno San Salvador, El
Honduran Red Cross, the Ministry of
Public Health and private doctors, as
well as the construction of latrines,
there were no outbreaks of communicable diseases.

After eight days of negotiation, at
4:00 am just five hours before the
planned signing of an agreement ,
2,000 well-armed Honduran soldiers
and police attacked an encampment of
indigenous and black protesters. The
demonstrators were gathered outside
of the Honduran Presidential Palace in
Tegucigalpa to protest the politically
motivated assassinations of Chortis'
leaders, Candido Amador and Ovidio
Perez, and to demand the return of
indigenous lands. Abiding by their
convictions, the demonstrators refused
to leave until an agreement was signed
and continued their peaceful protest
despite violent assault from the government.
Over four thousand people from
seven Honduran indigenous and black
groups: Chortis, Lenca, Pech, Tolupan,
Miskito, black English speaking Creoles
and Garifuna arrived in Tegucigalpa as
part of the "Great Indigenous and
Black Mobilization" on May 5, 1997.
In the camp, food was scarce and
health care inadequate. Many people
suffered from stress, heat exhaustion,
heart conditions, and arthritis. Still,
Hospital Escuela, only a mile away,
refused to provide the pilgrims with
essential medical treatment. The public health risks were comparable to
those of many poor Honduran communities. Luckily, /with the arrival of the

36

In the negotiating room, things
appeared to be moving swiftly. By the
second day, the government had
already agreed to conduct a full internal investigation into the assassinations
of Amador and Perez. The government
was slow to comply with Articles 13
through 19 of Convention 169 of the
International Labor Organization (ILO),
which demands the return of indigenous lands and respect for indigenous
cultures.
This refusal to concede
blocked negotiations for eight days.
Pastor Fasquelle, chief government
negotiator, finally presented an agreement directly to the encampment.
Offering too little land and not enough
guarantees, the proposal met with
fierce opposition and was rejected in
an oral vote. Finally, an agreement was
reached that included a stricter time
table to restore indigenous land and
stronger guarantees of government
compliance.
Five hours before the agreement
was to be signed at 9 a.m. on May
11th, 1,500 soldiers and 500 police
descended upon the camp armed with
riot gear and rifles, including M 16's
and M60's (large tripod-style machine
guns). Unarmed men, women, and
children assembled peacefully in front
of Presidential Palace found themselves
trying to avoids the blows of their
attackers. One pregnant woman was
brutally beaten, and many children
were trampled by police. Large pots of
cold water were poured over protesters
and most of their possessions were
destroyed. Michael Marsh, an interna-

Salvador; FAX 503-271-2484
Ambassador of El Salvador Ana Cristina Sol,
Embassy of El Salvador, 2308 California St.
NW Washington, DC 20008; FAX 202-3280563

Send copies to: Dra. Victoria Marina
Velasquez de Aviles, Procuradora para Ia
defensa de los derechos humanos de El
Salvador, 9a. Avenida Nte. y Calle Poniente,
Edificio Amsa No. 535, San Salvador, El
Salvador
Adrian Esquino Lisco, Asociaci6n Nacional
Indigena Salvadorena ANIS, calle Obispo
Marroquin Oficina Antigua Aduana Ferrea
5-l Sonsonate, El Salvador; FAX 011-503451-0742
tional observer, personally witnessed
soldiers violently knocking over women
with children in their arms.
The pilgrims relocated a mile away
at a more precarious site. Fast moving
cars encircled the encampment, hitting
one protester. Most of their food and
belongings had been confiscated, and
authorities refused to release them.
These government actions incited public outrage. Hundreds of students and
other demonstrators flocked to the
capital equipped with food, clothing,
and other supplies.
It was two days before negotiations
formally resumed. After the resignation of Pastor Fasquelle from the government negotiating team, progress
was made toward resolving the crisis.
The accord was signed on May 14th
between President Reina and the
indigenous delegation representing the
demonstrators. In addition to promising a full investigation into the assassinations, the agreement also includes
the return of 9,000 hectares of land,
the instatement of human rights
observers in Copan and Ocotepeque,
where many indigenous people have
received threats or been attacked by
wealthy landowners, transportation to
return the pilgrims to their communities of origin, assurances to fulfill its
obligations from past treaties. The
negotiators also agreed to instate a
commission of Guarantors to guarantee the fulfillment of this agreement.
The commission will work with indigenous groups and government agencies
to insure compliance of the agreement.

Information for this article from:
www.ibw.com.ni/-cgenica
for further information write:
andres%acceso@sdnhon. org. hn
Abya Yala News

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                    <text>ENVIRONMENT

he situation concerning the
Sumo of Awastingni of the
Atlantic coast of Nicaragua in
the Autonomous region of the
North Atlantic (RAAN) is
becoming increasingly difficult under the
government of Dr. Arnoldo Aleman, the
current president of the republic.
Aleman's administration has been unwilling to continue discussions regarding the
management of natural resources and the
rights of Indigenous communities in the
coastal region of Nicaragua.
It was the previous administration of
Dona Violeta Chamorro that granted a
land concession to lumber dealers which
affected the Sumo's territory In March of
1996 the government of Dona Violeta
Chamorro promised a concession to the
timber company SOLCARSA, a subsidiary of the Korean company Kum
Kyung, which granted the company a 30year contract to explore and exploit the
63,000 hectares of tropical rain forest in
the territory of the Sumo community of
Awastingni. This concession was made
without consulting the Sumo community.
For the Sumos, this concession signifies a
grave threat to the security and survival
of the 364 families who live in this region
and have traditionally fished, hunted,
cultivated and buried their dead on these
lands.
International pressure from financial
institutions impelled the government of
Violeta Chamorro to start privatizing
state industries and to undertake development projects on a grand scale in order
to attract foreign investment. The government alleged that, according to the Civil
Code, the lands were not titled to private
individuals but belonged to the government and could therefore be given in
concessions. With this justification the
government handed over great tracts of
national land to transnational corporations like SOLCA~SA. This policy contraflllll"'"""'!ll'-,...

diets the Law of Autonomy of the Atlantic
Coast as well as the measures concerning
traditional lands which were won in
1985.
In September 1996, the Sumos presented a petition to the court of appeals
in Managua against the Ministry of
Natural Resources
(MARENA) in
an attempt to
THAT,
halt the concession. When their
ACCORDING TO THE
appeal was rejectCIVIL CODE, THE
ed, the community took their
NOT
LANDS
case to
the
TITLED TO
Supreme Court.
It in turn disINDIVIDUALS
carded
their
TO THE
case, claiming
that the appeal
was submitted
30 days after the
BE GIVEN IN
signing of the
concession- in
CONCESSIONS."
other
words,
they acted too late.
The Sumos considers these actions by
the government to be in violation of
international norms, the Constitution of
the republic and the statute of the
Autonomous government of the Atlantic
Coast region. They have filed a petition of
protest before the Inter American
Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)
and the Organization of American States
(OAS). These organizations accused the
Nicaraguan government of not complying with its obligation to guarantee the
demarcation of the communal lands of
Awastingni and of the other Indigenous
communities of the Atlantic Coast.
Particularly frustrating is the fact that the
national government continues to make
consequential decisions regarding the
national resources of the Atlantic Coast
region in complete disregard of the

statutes of the Autonomous Government
of the Atlantic Coast, which has been
awaiting ratification in the national congress since 1990.
As a result of the meetings with the
lACHR and the OAS, delegates from the
Nicaraguan government and representatives from the Sumo and Miskitu communities formed a task force under the
Dona Violeta administration to further
study the issue. However, under the new
administration of Dr. Arnoldo Aleman,
new conflicts are surfacing. Delegates of
the new government are accusing Sumo
leaders of being separatists. It is evident
that the new government has little desire
to continue with the task force discussions.
Meanwhile the Sumos continue to
suffer from the repercussions of the mining exploitation project that operated on
their lands from 1930 through the 1980s.
They bitterly recount their personal experiences of the destruction of their environment, their rainforests and their entire
way of life. They are demanding that this
time their rights as an autonomous community be respected. For many years the
rivers in their territory have been severely contaminated. The consequences of
this contamination are evident: high
infant mortality rates, chronic diarrhea,
open sores on their skin and a host of
other illnesses and infections. The Sumos
demand respect for their community and
improvements in their roads, their
schools, their public health facilities and
the care of their fragile forests. One of
their highest priorities is ensuring the
reforestation of their land.
For the Sumos, the only alternative
for the survival of their communities is
the demarcation of their communal
lands. In this way they can legally keep
out forces like the Korean company Kum
Kyung which continue to seek access to
their lands and resources. ~

--~·---

34

Abya Yala News

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                    <text>0

DAUGHTERS

F

B YA

Y A l A

@I

I

•
•
..

IS

s

Thoughts of Grandma lupe during the
encounter.
n December 1996 the members of the Indigenous
Cultural Society Tepehuanos organized a ceremonial
meeting in the municipality of Escuinapa, Sinaloa, Mexico
to focus on the theme "Indigenous Women-Respect and
Dignity." Representatives of the Tepehuanos, Huicholes,
Cherokee, Micmac, Maliseet, Passomoquody, and Algonguin
peoples came to participate in the conversation circles, temascales (sweat lodges), and nights of medicine dancing. The meeting concentrated on supporting the cause of the Indigenous
American Woman facing the challenges and obstacles that
threaten indigenous culture and sacred values of the indigenous
peoples.
The indigenous grandmothers stressed the importance of
the indigenous spirituality in our lives. During the meeting we
had the opportunity to interview grandma Huichola, Guadalupe
de la Cruz Rios de la Rallanera, (from Sinaloa) known as Lupe.
Lupe emphasized the importance of keeping ourselves in the
harmonious circle of connection with the Creator that is fundamental to generating constructive forces and battling the injustices suffered by the world's indigenous peoples.
Grandma Lupe told us that in her community they continue
to practice their own culture based in the spirituality or spiritual vision of the Huicholes for whom they keep their customs
alive. "Our Grandmothers left us this legacy," says Lupe, "and it
is an ancient history from long ago and we the Huicholes continue to follow its footsteps."
Grandma, could you explain to us the Huichola spirituality
that you practise?
In our Huichola spirituality, we all wear the Huichola clothing that is of fabric drawn with the images of the gods during
the ceremonies. This distinguishes us from other religions. One
of the most important ceremonies that we practice is the medi-

32

Guadalupe de Ia Cruz Rfos de Ia Rallanera, master artisan and
spiritual guide and healer in Sinaloa, Mexico
cine gathering, when we harvest the Hicuri that helps us to concentrate and commune with our Creator and to perceive ideas
that guide our lives and all our actions. In preparing for the ceremony we go to the mountains, to Huilcuta, once a year before
the harvest to gather the Hicuri or Peyote Espafiol (sacred
plants). Huiculta is a sacred place where dwell the gods;
Tatemantiniegue (water), Tate-Wari (fire), Tate-Huirika-Iumari
(grandmother), Tate-Haramara (ocean), Tauyupa (the sun),
Tate-Yulienaka (Mother Earth). The Gods guide our path, teach
us, feed us with the fruit they give us, and with their spirit we
live.
·
This ceremony is very important for our community since it
is when we receive counsel and assistance to help us complete
the tasks we want or need to do.
We also perform ceremonies when we sow corn, and when
the first ears flower. We have blue, white, yellow, red, and black
corn. The corn is sacred because it is our main foodsource and
is a fruit of the Mother Earth.
There is a special day when we perform a ceremony with the
children and the sun so that the Gods may give life and force
Continue on page 33
Abya Yala News

�DAUGHTERS

OF

BYA

-------------------------------------------------~~~~~~~~~~--~~--~~~~--

YALA

Back issues are available in both
Spanish and English
for $3 each plus shipping!!
0 State Frontiers and Indian Nations
Vol. 9 No.1, Spring 1995; Includes:
• Ecuador-Peru Border War
• Interview Leonardo Viteri
• Mexico's Domestic and International Borders

0 Confronting Biocolonialism

Indigenous Huichola women participating in the ceremony of the Huicurf (peyote)/
Sinaloa/ Mexico.

and so that the children gain a better
understanding of their roots and language.
What is your mission as the spiritual
guide of the community?
My mission is to teach the knowledge
that my grandmothers have left me.
Although I will no longer be here, the
teachings of our grandmothers remain
alive and I wish to reinforce our culture,
teach the cultivation of the earth, reinforce the unity and strength of
the family and especially maintain the
Huichola spirituality
I also make offerings
of food to the Gods. I
leave an offering of
corn drink or food on
the altar in our temple
since the Gods have left
us things of importance.
Eating and drinking the
food of the altar, brings us
new thoughts and new
knowledge. The Huichola
spirituality shows us respect
between man and woman, that
man and woman are actually
complimentary not two indivividual entities that compete.
As a spiritual guide I give family counsel to young coulples who
sometimes have problems with each
other. The man and the woman are one
Vol. 10 No.3

body I show them that the Creator gives
us intelligence and peace and thus we
should always feel clean and happy We
do not create problems between ourselves
and between those who speak other languages because we are all children of the
Creator.
What is the relation between the traditional craftwork and Huichola spirituality?
Our craftwork is a product of
visions that we obtain when we
go to Huilcuta and when we
eat Hicuri or Peyote. In the
visions we see the different
images and this is what we
An example of the mastery of Tepehuano artisan women. This is a
[thingamajig] that is
used to carry sacred
objects needed during ceremonies.

copy and weave. De
ahi viene los cuadros
de chaquira de
estambre.
My
grandmother
showed me. Our
craftsmanship is intimately connected to our spirituality since every image expresses a significant relationship with nature and the universe. "9

Vol. 8, No. 4, Winter 1994; Includes:
• The Human Genome Diversity Project
• Safeguarding Indigenous Knowledge
• The Guaymi Patent
• Biodiversity and Community Integrity

0 Indian Movements and The Electoral Process
Vol. 8, No. 3, Fall 1994; Includes:
• Mexico: Indigenous Suffrage Under Protest
• Bolivia: Reconstructing the Ayllu
• Guatemala: Maya Political Crossroads
• Colombia: Special indian Districting

0 Chiapas: Indigenous Uprising with
Campesino Demands?
Vol. 8, Nos. 1 &amp; 2, Summer 1994; Includes:
• Maya Identity and the Zapatista Uprising
• Chronology of Events
• Indigenous and Campesino Peace Proposals
• Interview with Antonio
Hernandez Cruz of CIOAC

0 II Continental Encounter of Indigenous Peoples
Vol. 7, Nos. 3 &amp; 4, Winter 1993
(not available in Spanish); Also includes:
• Oil Companies Take Over the
Ecuadorian Amazon
• Free Trade's Assault on IndigenouS Rights

0 1993 Year of the World's Indigenous Peoples
Vol. 7, Nos. 1 &amp; 2, Winter/Spring 1993; Includes:
• UN Declaration of Indigenous Rights
• Statement of Indigenous Nations at the UN

0 Exclusive Interviews with Four Indian Leaders
Vol. 6, No. 4, Fa/11992; Interviews:
• Miqueas Millares, AIDESEP CPeru)
• Mateo Chumira, Guarani &lt;Bolivia)
• Margarito Ruiz, FIPI CMexico)
• Calixta Gabriel, Kaqchikel Maya (Guatemala)
• Pehuenche Organizing
Pays Off CChilel
• South and Central American
Women's Gathering CPeru)

33

I

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                    <text>I

N D I A N

C

I T Y

il:

i
While we were doing the research for this issue, one of our colleages informed us that Paulo
Pankararu, the first Indigenous laywer in Brazil and currently on the staff of the lnstituto
Socioambiental, was on the West Coast. SAI/C took the opportunity, along with the Rainforest Action
Network, to invite Paulo to the Bay Area for an event and an interview Paulo has worked to defend
Indigenous rights in Brazil and was interviewed for an article in Veja magazine on the topic of
Indigenous migration to the cities in Brazil. In what follows, SAIIC discusses the article with Paulo.
(SAIIC) What is the principal cause of
Indigenous migration to the cities of
Brazil, and what is the relation
between this phenomenon and the conditions inside the Indigenous reserves?

he problem of migration is
linked to the conditions within the Indigenous areas. Many
Indigenous peoples are heading towards urban centers to
find new ways life, to find work, anything
to make possible the survival of their
families. This is what is evident today in
Brazil.
Nevertheless, iflndigenous areas were
demarcated, and if alternative development projects within the areas received
support, this migration would be reduced
to the point of being insignificant.
f!l!l"'""''ll"'"""llll.

10

Does migration have to do with the
increase in the Indigenous population
in Brazil?
Happily, the Indigenous population in
Brazil has been increasing in the last few
years, but this doesn't constitute a problem for Indigenous peoples. The reality, I
think, is that the Indigenous population
could grow much more, because before
the colonization-in the 1500s-we were
about 5 million Indians. Today in Brazil,
there are approximately 300,000 Indians.
So, the question of the increase in
Indigenous population is not a problem.
Still, upon analysis, things are changing: Indigenous peoples are gaining back
lands, and are becoming more organized.
This is due to the work of Brazilian
NGOs, Indigenous organizations, and to
the alliances with international NGOs. So
this is a solution for [the problem].

The Veja article states that migration
to the cities is an attempt to flee from
the misery of the Indigenous reserves.
In the reserves, the life expectancy
often fails to surpass 46 years. Yet, a
domminent idea, indeed the basis of
the campaign of support: to title
Indigenous lands, is that Indigenous
peoples can live better lives in their
territories, on their lands. What are
your thoughts on this matter?
The Veja article exposes a very real situation in Brazil. This is linked to my first
response. Due to the new and bigger perspectives within the Indigenous areas,
many Indians are going to cities. Within
the areas, there exists a host of pressures,
like land invasions, and a situation of corruption at many levels. It's not that life in
the Indigenous area is not "better" than
life in the city Problems exist that are
linked to the question of land, and this
problem is generating migration. Now, it
is difficult to really evaluate what would
be the advantages of staying in the village
or of finding a solution in the city This is
a very difficult question to answer
because we are dealing with extremes;
when you deal with extremes, it's not possible to really compare, what would be
better, what would be less harmful.
The Veja article also says that the
Indigenous peoples living in Brazil's
cities constitute the second biggest
"tribe" of the country, behind only the
Guarani, who number 35,000. This
statement creates the image that
urbanized Indians in Brazil are unified,
or have social unity in the city. Is this
accurate, or, a.re they not uniting as
Indigenous peoples in the city?
There are various Indigenous organizations working in the cities, but this
Continue on page 11
Abya Yala News

�I
doesn't mean that there is a "national
organization of urban Indians," just like
there isn't a "national organization of
reserve Indians." This is an impossibility
in Brazil because these are differentiated
peoples, geographically, linguistically, etc.

concept of Indigenous culture with
respect to space and Indigenous areas
because this back and forth movement
exists. Our ancestors already communicated with other Indigenous areas, and
exchanged experiences.
In regards to this pattern of
But the question is also that, in migrat- Indigenous peoples and cities, I did not
ing to the cities, despite cultural differ- do the [Veja] article knowing the cultural
ences, their problems become very reality proper to Indigenous communisimilar.
ties, but I did it to expose an existing
Yes. What is most common is that social problem. I do not think that
people find family,
"Indigenous
or relatives, in the
~ peoples should
city There's contiGl in any way be
nuity, almost an
~ "restricted" to
extension of the
~ the Indigenous
reserve community,
§- areas, because
within the city But
~ it is possible to
this doesn't go as far
have this interas to reflect a spirit
c h a n g e
of national organibetween city
zation, if anything
and Indigenous
when
because,
area, and to
Indigenous people
work out propgo to the cities, they
er
cultural
often do it only on a
mechanisms.
provisional basis.
So, the quesThey do not aspire
tion becomes
to remain within
one of resolving
the city So, in this
the land probcontext, one can
lems
of
speak of the culturIndigenous
al side of migration,
peoples, and to
and arrive at the
work for alterthought that we are Paulo Pankarau during an interview with native and susSAIIC
not dealing with
tainable devel"migration to the
opment for the
city," but more realistically a search for communities. Then, the "problem" would
means to support oneself as an "Indian," be resolved.
to provide continuity to one's culture,
maintaining contact with one's relatives, Do the major organizations of the
and returning to the reserves, and return- Indigenous movement in Brazil like
ing again. Indigenous cultures permit this CAPOIB, COIAB, and CIR, work with
movement of going and coming back.
the urbanized "sector," if one can
speak of such a thing, and do they conDoes there exist a generation of sider this as an important cause to
Indigenous peoples born in the city? If defend?
so, their reality must be completely
There is a connection, but today in
different.
Brazil the strongest goal is to defend
Yes, this exists. It is a very different Indigenous lands so that Indigenous peoreality from the person born and raised ples can live in their own territories.
inside an Indigenous area. But there is no
doubt that the person who lived in the Do distinct organizations exist to
Indigenous reserve 30 years ago also had assist Indigenous migrants in the
a very different reality from the person cities?
who lives there today So, for all those livThere are associations. For example,
ing in Indigenous areas, there are differ- my people have an association in Sao
Paulo, Brazil's largest city This association
ences across time.
So, we cannot work .with this closed exists so as to prevent conditions of mis-

N D I A N

C

I T Y

ery for our people in the city. But, its
principal objective remains to advocate
for a solution to the land problems of
evictions so that these people may eventually return to the areas.
Is it possible, in regards to Indigenous
migration to the cities, to speak of positive effects or results, or is it only a
negative experience leading to poverty,
exploitation, marginalization?
If we analyze migration to the cities as
a strategy for survival, then it is possible
to say that it has a positive result. For
people who go to the city to show their
culture, make contacts with institutions,
to show the Indigenous reality, it is productive, but it is another level of relations
that is at work.
The ideal is that there exist relations
based on respect between Indigenous and
non-Indigenous peoples. If these respectful relations existed, Indigenous peoples
could more freely visit the cities and also
receive their friends in the Indigenous
areas.
What about for those people who
remain in the Indigenous areas? Is it
beneficial for them to have relatives or
family in the urban context? Does it
make their political work easier, for
example, to have relatives in the city?
Yes, alliances with people in the city
are very important. They are necessary,
considering our objective to have a more
pluralistic society in Brazil. It's important
to establish these alliances, with universities, with NGOs, with environmental
organizations. These alliances exist, but
much more for rural laborers.
The sector that supports Indigenous
peoples is also composed of organizations
of urban laborers. This is the idea behind
the unification of forces to reinforce the
organizations.
Do labor organizations and their partisan politics and various ideologies
have any influence on the Indigenous
movement?
No, they have no influence on the
Indigenous organizations, but the political support of a wide base of organizations is important. For example, when
Decree 1775 was instituted, with all the
problems it implied for Indigenous areas,
many organizations came out against it.
In this way they supported Indigenous
peoples, but this doesn't translate into
this movement's having any influence on
Continue on page 11
·~------·

Vol. 10 No.3

11

�S

E L F

DETERMINATION

A N D

TERRITORY

Continued from page 11

'Wa chief Roberto Cobaria
and his companion Edgar
Mendez came in early May
for a two week U.S tour to
try to garner support from
environmental organizations and human
rights workers in their fight to protect

ances, Chief Cobaria made clear the U'Wa
belief that if there is no blood (oil) there
is no light and there is no life. Petroleum
is a part of the U'Wa's environment as
much as the forests and rivers and animals are, and cannot be removed from its
habitat without disrupting the precious

the Indigenous way of thinking. They are
different.
Now, it is clear that the work of
Indigenous peoples in the city, creating
alliances, this is completely different
from the problem of migration.
Migration is not a method of establishing
alliances. Migration is a reaction to a set
of problems, like lack of land and unsustainable conditions in the Indigenous
areas, which force people to head for the
cities. This doesn't constitute a beneficial
solution for the communities in the
Indigenous areas.
Do Indigenous organizations aspire to
a high level of autonomy, with a proper education, control over the territories, and self-rule in the respective
areas?
The idea is that the government exercise greater respect towards the traditional organizations of Indigenous peoples.
We are not seeking a very formal system
of representation of Indigenous peoples,
but simply that our traditional organizations and our customs be granted
respect.

Roberto Cobaria, chief of the U'Wa people.

their territory from
oil exploitation.
They met with
Occidental in Los
THE
Angles and gave
press conferences
IS
and presentations
in Washington D. C
and San Francisco.
The U'Wa are
determined to continue their protest
of Oxy and are
standing firm in
their refusal to
WORLD.
allow any portion
of their land to be
bought or sold or contaminated in any
way:

IS

For the U'Wa, petroleum is the blood
of the Mother Earth and is crucial for
maintaining the delicate balance of the
world. In his numerous Bay Area appear------------------

Vol. 10 No.3

equilibrium which the U'Wa work to
maintain and protect. In an interview at
the South and Meso American Indian
Rights Center, Roberto explained how
petroleum was here on earth before there
was anything, before the world was created. The Occidental corporation refuses
to respect this belief and has offered more
royalties to the community in hopes of
gaining access to the oil-rich region. The
U'Wa asked Oxy who gave them the
authority to buy, sell or exploit that which
they do not own.
In a press conference at Rainforest
Action Network, San Francisco, Chief
Roberto Cobaria said that to negotiate
this matter [we] are contaminating ourselves. The U'wa are continuing to fight
for their right to protect and preserve the
integrity of their land and culture. They
feel that any exploration on their ancestral territory will gravely disrupt their culture and traditions as well as the land that
has sustained them for centuries.~

Are you seeking the right to administer the territories?
Indigenous areas in Brazil are destined for the usufruct of Indigenous peoples. They are the property of the state,
and Indigenous peoples hold usufruct
rights over them. This is a very complex
issue in Brazil, because when people
speak of "self-determination," various
sectors interpret this as proof that
Indians want to disassociate with the
state and establish a type of sovereignty,
and this in turn ends up jeopardizing our
relations with the larger society:
Therefore, in today's Brazil, we are speaking more about respect towards
Indigenous cultures and customs and
decision-making rights for Indigenous
peoples regarding their territories. We
make it very clear that we do not have
the intention of creating a new state, and
enter into conflict with national sovereignty: We want to support our systems
of culture and traditions, and receive the
respect of the state and of the larger society:~

- - - - - - - - - - -

31

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E L F

DETERMINATION

A N D

TERRITORY

Continued from page 11

'Wa chief Roberto Cobaria
and his companion Edgar
Mendez came in early May
for a two week U.S tour to
try to garner support from
environmental organizations and human
rights workers in their fight to protect

ances, Chief Cobaria made clear the U'Wa
belief that if there is no blood (oil) there
is no light and there is no life. Petroleum
is a part of the U'Wa's environment as
much as the forests and rivers and animals are, and cannot be removed from its
habitat without disrupting the precious

the Indigenous way of thinking. They are
different.
Now, it is clear that the work of
Indigenous peoples in the city, creating
alliances, this is completely different
from the problem of migration.
Migration is not a method of establishing
alliances. Migration is a reaction to a set
of problems, like lack of land and unsustainable conditions in the Indigenous
areas, which force people to head for the
cities. This doesn't constitute a beneficial
solution for the communities in the
Indigenous areas.
Do Indigenous organizations aspire to
a high level of autonomy, with a proper education, control over the territories, and self-rule in the respective
areas?
The idea is that the government exercise greater respect towards the traditional organizations of Indigenous peoples.
We are not seeking a very formal system
of representation of Indigenous peoples,
but simply that our traditional organizations and our customs be granted
respect.

Roberto Cobaria, chief of the U'Wa people.

their territory from
oil exploitation.
They met with
Occidental in Los
THE
Angles and gave
press conferences
IS
and presentations
in Washington D. C
and San Francisco.
The U'Wa are
determined to continue their protest
of Oxy and are
standing firm in
their refusal to
WORLD.
allow any portion
of their land to be
bought or sold or contaminated in any
way:

IS

For the U'Wa, petroleum is the blood
of the Mother Earth and is crucial for
maintaining the delicate balance of the
world. In his numerous Bay Area appear------------------

Vol. 10 No.3

equilibrium which the U'Wa work to
maintain and protect. In an interview at
the South and Meso American Indian
Rights Center, Roberto explained how
petroleum was here on earth before there
was anything, before the world was created. The Occidental corporation refuses
to respect this belief and has offered more
royalties to the community in hopes of
gaining access to the oil-rich region. The
U'Wa asked Oxy who gave them the
authority to buy, sell or exploit that which
they do not own.
In a press conference at Rainforest
Action Network, San Francisco, Chief
Roberto Cobaria said that to negotiate
this matter [we] are contaminating ourselves. The U'wa are continuing to fight
for their right to protect and preserve the
integrity of their land and culture. They
feel that any exploration on their ancestral territory will gravely disrupt their culture and traditions as well as the land that
has sustained them for centuries.~

Are you seeking the right to administer the territories?
Indigenous areas in Brazil are destined for the usufruct of Indigenous peoples. They are the property of the state,
and Indigenous peoples hold usufruct
rights over them. This is a very complex
issue in Brazil, because when people
speak of "self-determination," various
sectors interpret this as proof that
Indians want to disassociate with the
state and establish a type of sovereignty,
and this in turn ends up jeopardizing our
relations with the larger society:
Therefore, in today's Brazil, we are speaking more about respect towards
Indigenous cultures and customs and
decision-making rights for Indigenous
peoples regarding their territories. We
make it very clear that we do not have
the intention of creating a new state, and
enter into conflict with national sovereignty: We want to support our systems
of culture and traditions, and receive the
respect of the state and of the larger society:~

- - - - - - - - - - -

31

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DETERMINATION

recent ruling by the
Constitutional Court of
Colombia that the government must "consult" with
the U'wa Indigenous people
regarding oil activities in their territory
may be a move to undermine Indigenous
rights in that country The U'wa, under
threat of an oil concession to Occidental
de Colombia, an affiliate of Occidental
Petroleum of Bakersfield, CA, have
threatened to commit collective suicide if
the company is allowed to exploit oil in
their territory
Fiercely opposed to the Colombian
governments' agreement to allow
Occidental to explore in their territory,
the U'wa claim that they would rather die
than live with the inevitable desecration
of their sacred ancestral land which
would accompany the oil extracting project. U'wa leaders say that they have
"talked about collective suicide" and that
their spiritual leaders, the Werhayas, will
decide how they will make the sacrifice.
In the late 17th century an entire community of U'wa committed mass suicide
by jumping off of a cliff when a group of
Spanish missionaries and tax collectors
threatened to take over their village.
Today the U'wa people call this spot "the
Cliff of Glory"
On October 22, 1997, SAIIC sent out
an urgent action to infonn the international community that the U'wa
Indigenous people in Colombia were
threatening to commit collective suicide
if the Occidental Oil Company went
through with its plans to do seismic testing and exploit oil in the Samore Block, a
concession it had acquired from the state
oil company Ecopetrol in 1992. For
Occidental to obtain the necessary environmental permit to begin its seismic
studies it was required by law to discuss
the potential impact the project could
have on the Indigenous communities in
the region. By February 1995 Occidental
was granted its license after having met
with representatives from Ecopetrol, the
Colombian goverpment, and U'wa communities. A government human rights

30

A N D

TERRITORY

i

E l F

i

I

i

organization called The People's away with the environmental license preDefender's sued the Environment viously required for seismic exploration.
Ministry on grounds that they disregard- However a September court ruling called
ed the U'wa's position on the issue. The into question the legality of that action.
Environment Ministry and Occidental
The suit and recent court ruling have
argued that there was no legislation that brought to light the profound conflict of
required the U'wa's approval of the pro- interest between indigenous peoples in
ject before its implementation. The final Colombia and that of the nations' largest
ruling decided that while a 30-day con- source of foreign revenue, oil exportation.
sultation period is mandatory, the gov- Occidental has released the information
ernment reserves the right to make the that the oil field on which the U'wa live
could be one of the largest in the hemiultimate decision.
The 5-4 ruling on February 2, 1997, sphere, holding between 1 and 2.5 billion
deemed that the Colombian government barrels of oil. The Colombian government would get 80 percent of
has 30-days to consult with the
the profits from the exploitaU'wa, after which time the govtion.
ernment apparently retains the
The U'wa, who number
right to decide whether or not
roughly 8,000, are well aware
the oil exploration and eventual
of the ambiguous court ruling,
exploitation will continue.
NEGOTIATE."
Although the court decided in
and have sent out a letter to
the
international
public
favor of Indigenous participation in the decision making
expressing their dismay that
"those gentlemen judges [of
process, ONIC, the Indigenous
the Constitutional Court] have
Organization of Colombia, has
not been able to defend our
TEGRIA
stated that "[Indigenous peoples] gain nothing with the
fundamental rights: to the
integrity of our territory, to our
guarantee of the right to be consulted if the government has no obliga- culture, and, in general, our life. Rights
tion to respect the results of the consulta- which, besides being recognized by the
tion."
constitution and both national and interThe court ruling apparently under- national norms presently in force, are
mines the historic Decree 1397, which ancestral rights. "
"What is sacred we don't negotiate,"
was established in August 1996 after a
long Indigenous protest in Bogota by the said Ebaristo Tegria in an interview with
82 native communities in Colombia (see the Associated Press. The U'wa believe oil
Abya Yala News 10:2 Summer 1996). is the blood of Mother Earth and that its
Decree 1397 calls for mandatory consul- exploitation will lead to the destruction of
tation with Indigenous peoples and their their culture. "We have already made
organizations (Mesa de Concertaci6n) known our thoughts about this project to
before starting any project in their com- bleed Mother Earth, " states their letter.
munities. It requires that eight ministries, "For us Mother Earth is sacred, is not for
three Indigenous organizations and violation, exploitation, nor negotiation; it
politicians as well as three other official is to be cared for, to be conserved. For
bodies be in attendance during the dis- these reasons we cannot permit oil explocussions surrounding any future develop- ration on our traditional territory." "'9
ment, including oil exploration projects.
Mining and Oil interests disputed the Information from ONIC and the Amazon
decree, claiming that it made the licens- Coalition. Pleas.:: send letters to President
ing process far too difficult for foreign
investors. In response to these com- Emesto Samper callingfor the respect of
plaints, the Colombian government did Indigenous rights to their ancestral territory.

Abya Ya\a News

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                    <text>5

E l F

DETERMINATION

A N D

TERRITORY

he
bullet
entered
from under
his jaw, and
came
out
the top of his head," says
Maestro Ernesto of the
Partido de la Revoluci6n
Democratica (PRD). With his
index finger as the barrel, he
forms his hand into a gun
and sticks it into the soft flesh
of his jowl. Then he pulls the
trigger and taps the barrel
against his skull.
lfllll!liiiB""''Iii""-

"The government says it was a robbery or altercation, but the manner in
which he was executed indicates otherwise. It was retaliation for the previous
kidnapping and killing of a PRI candidate. He was assassinated by the Judicial
Police."
The body of R.E.Martinez was found
in his home in Nueva Palestina, Chiapas
on January 16, 1996, the victim of what
the PRD and opposition groups are defining as more than an isolated act of
vengeance. Funded and orchestrated by
wealthy landlords, cattle ranchers and
the ruling Partido Revolucionario
Institucional (PRI), it is an intentional
against
campaign of oppression
Indigenous and campesino communities
carried out by the police, Mexican
National Army and private goon squads
called the White Guard. In Chiapas,
Oaxaca, Guerrero and other Mexican
states, any action that threatens the land
tenure of the rich or endangers the election of PRI candidates is crushed.
Mexico's population of over 10 million
indigenas, the majority of whom are
campesinos or peasant workers, has been

Brad Miller is a free-lance journalist who
has written for newspapers and magazines
such as the Progressive, and for a section of
the Utne Reader entitled "Nine Views of
Mexico."
26

IN CHIAPAS,
OAXACA,
GUERRERO AND
OTHER MEXICAN
STATES, ANY
ACTION THAT
THREATENS THE
TENURE OF
THE RICH OR
ENDANGERS
ELECTION OF PRI
CANDIDATES IS
CRUSHED.

hit heavily by these pistoleros. In the continuing 500 year nightmare of genocide,
the corpses of the Tzotzil, Chole, Mixe
and Nahualt Indians that appear in alleys
or irrigation ditches are written off as the
victims of drunken brawls or jealous husbands.
The victims converge on the PRD
office in the Chiapan capital of Tuxtla
Gutierrez. The residents of Jaltenango de
laPaz and Nueva Palestina travel the 150
miles by bus to register complaints con-

cerning human rights abuses and landtenure disputes.
'The Judicial Police arrived at our
house with ten vehicles and a helicopter,"
says Muriel Perez of Jaltenango. "They
beat up my husband. Now my 70 yearold mother-in-law and three children are
missing. We have been looking for them
for three days."
She believes that the rich landlords
who own the property next to her small
farm want to expand onto her land and
Continue on page 2 7
Abya Yala News

�S
that they have been directing the activities of the Judicial Police.
"Our farm is titled under my motherin-laws name. And now we can't find
her."
Behind Maestro Ernesto a sign hangs
on the cracked, concrete wall: "The brave
don't shoot cowards in the back."

T

he Mexican government denies any
violations committed are officially
sanctioned, and in their version of
history, the White Guard has never existed. But historically, the national rulers
and the state of Chiapas have supported
the landlords and cattlemen, called
ganaderos, and the formation of their private armies.
Since the invasion of Columbus,
Cortez and the Conquistadors, those
gluttonous for land have forced
Indigenous subsistence farmers off fertile
land and into the rocky canyons and jungle. Several Chiapan governors own vast
spreads of cattle land, forming special
police forces to persecute cattle thieves
and creating laws allowing ganaderos to
carry weapons. The ganaderos, strongly
tied to the PRI, have continued to be
given credits, subsidies and political aid
from the Mexican government. The cattle
industry is also propped up by the foreign credits of the World Bank, the
United States, New Zealand and
Australia.
The ganaderos have consolidated
their power by forming groups like the
Citizen's Defense Group and the National
Small Property Owner's Confederation
and arming their White Guard, who are
usually young ranch hands, to defend
against anyone occupying "their" land.
They have felt especially threatened since
the 1992 Quincentennial date marking
the arrival of Christopher Columbus and
the beginning of Indigenous genocide.
The ganadero leaders pump local residents full of fear, telling them the
"Indiada" is corning, that Chiapas will
soon
be
an
"Indian
reserve."
Chiapas-where 1/3 of the land is used for
cattle ranching, while indigenas and
carnpesinos farm only 1/5 of it.
Chiapas-the state that produces 28% of
Mexico's meat supply while most
Indigenous people can rarely afford to
buy farm animals or eat meat.
The Fray Bartolome Center for
Human Rights reported that ganaderos

E l F

DETERMINATION

were accompanying the Mexican Army as
it advanced through Altamirano and
Ocosingo during the 1995 winter offensive against the Zapatista National
Liberation Army (EZLN), breaking into
houses and stealing horses and cattle.
In several northern municipalities of
the state, indigenas and campesinos were
displaced by armed PRI groups who
attacked PRD-based communities and ejidos and by police operations backed by
local ganaderos. The expulsions intensified as the fall1995 elections approached.
More private armies were formed-the
Force of Reaction, the Juvenile
Revolutionary Front, Paz y Justicia (Peace
and Justice). Paz y Justicia established a
"summary court," where 63 families were
judged and fined for participation in the
PRD.
Since June 1996, the violence and terror have been escalating, influencing the
EZLN to pull out of the peace talks on
September 2. The Estaci6n Norte de
Distension and Reconciliaci6n, established by a number of human rights
groups to monitor the situation and facilitate a peaceful and positive outcome, has
reported that some communities are
under a state of siege. They lack food,
water and medicine and are continually
confronted by members of "Paz y
Justicia."
The pistoleros of those in power have
also been attacking Indigenous communities in Oaxaca, a state situated next to
Chiapas-both geographically and in
terms of poverty and Indigenous population.
Oaxaca, rich in natural resources, has
been the sight of a long-running battle
between foreign and mestizo colonizers
and Indigenous communities. The greed
for narcotics-generated money has only
intensified the conflict.
Indigenous groups in Oaxaca say the
PRI is using the pretext of fighting narcotraffickers to militarize the area, but that
armed groups are being used against
Indigenous communities and their leaders. They also believe the assassins of the
Oaxacan opposition leaders are actually
the ones involved in drug trafficking.
The caciques and ganaderos "have
used the force of judges, the police and
army," while they "have been infiltrated
by drug trafficking and have created paramilitaries or White Guard," says the
Union de Comunidades Indigenas de la
Zona Norte del Istrno (UCIZONI), an

A N D

TERRITORY

organization that promotes the rights and
culture of indigenas and provides them
legal aid.
During the local elections of
November 1995 the PRI sent in armed
groups to Mazatlan Villa de Flores to disrupt the traditional system of communal
vote-taking, killing one person. In the
ensuing state of siege, seven more people
were killed. Two Mixe Indian communities were displaced and one Mixe leader
assassinated by
PRI gunmen.
UCIZONI
leaders
have
been
popular
targets of the
military
and
White Guard-for
harassment, torture and assassination. In 1989,
a Mixe named
Crisforo
Jose
TRAFFICKERS
Pedro was murTHE
In
dered.
November 1995
it
was
Blas
ARMED GROUPS
Santos Vasquez
BEING USED
and Armando
Agustin
Bonifacio.
On
Sept. 18, 1996,
Abraham
Gonzalez
was
killed and three
other
Mixes
wounded.
Official cornplaints to the government concerning the
killing of indigenas are filed, but usually
ignored. According to the Minnesota
Advocates for Human Rights, six members of the Organization Indigenas de
Derechos Hurnanos en Oaxaca(OIDHO)
were killed between May 1995 and July
1996. The killing of OIDHO representative Honorato Zarate Vasquez was called a
suicide.
Teachers in Oaxaca, many of whom
are Indigenous, are also seen as a threat to
the power structure. ':(hey are often
threatened, beaten and killed.
As its leaders are murdered, Oaxaca's
Indigenous communities are slowly eliminated through displacement, emigration,
fear and detention. The Minnesota
Advocates for Human Rights state that as
of July 1996, half of Oaxaca's 3,600
inmates were Indigenous. The residents
Continue on a e 28

Vol. 10 No.3

27

�SELF
_ _ ___:___

DETERMINATION!
__

of Union y Progreso, who had been living
as refugees in a neighboring town for two
years due to the violence created by the
caciques and their pistoleros, travelled to
the City of Oaxaca in October 1996. The
displaced then set up camp in front of the
Governors palace in a protest to their desperate living situation.
But the government continues to
respond with more force, increasing its
deployment of military and police since
the public emergence of the People's
Revolutionary Army (EPR) in June of
1996. The army arrested almost all the
community leaders in Agustin Loxicha,
Oaxaca and rounded up villagers in the
mountains of Guerrero (the state where
the EPR first appeared). In Guerrero, military repression is nothing new. In June
1995 alone, three Mixtec members of the
Guerrero Council of 500 Years of
Indigenous Resistance were murdered,
and in a separate incident, 17 villagers
were shot to death as a group of police

28

A Nl D

TERRITORY

fired on a passing truck in Aguas Blancas.
In the state of Hidalgo, "the problem
of the private armies isn't as significant as
the use of government forces," says
Sabino Juarez of the Special Agrarian
Committee. "The caciques just use the
police and Federal Army as their White
Guard."
convoy of Mexican soldiers in USsupplied
HUMVEEs
winds
through the tight curves of
Chiapas's Highway 190. The soldiers look
out from under their US-supplied kevlar
helmets, scanning the cornfields that are
scattered on the steep, rocky hillsides, the
stalks poking out of the road cuts.
The US government sells Mexico $40
million per year in military equipment
and has trained over 700 of their officers
over the last ten years. Through military
credits and drug enforcement and eradication grants, the Mexican armed forces,
which now number over 200,000 troops,
have acquired over 80 Huey, Bell and
____

Blackhawk helicopters and 75 Swissmade P-7 jet trainers and 250 French
tanks. The trainer jets have been souped
up into lethal machines. The helicopters,
authorized only for drug enforcement
duties, have been used to battle the
Zapatistas and help the ganaderos and
landlords crush organization and dissent.
When not used directly by government
forces against opposition groups and
indigenas, automatic weapons have
'trickled down' into the hands of the
White Guard, whose oppression was one
of the initial reasons for the formation of
the EZLN-and others.
"Our principle fight is against the
existing ruling class," says Maestro
Rodolfo of the Coordination of the
Campesinos for the Popular Struggle,
based in Venustiano Carranza, Chiapas.
"We have organized to stop people's
hunger."
Hunger and land starvation is increasing, and Mexico's continued emphasis on
an export-oriented economy and the PRI's
globalization have further marginalized
indigenas and campesinos. The xevision
of Article 27 of the 1917 constitution
allows communal property to be seized if
the owners fall into debt, and permits
Indigenous lands to be purchased by outsiders. NAFTA (North American Free
Trade Agreement) and World Bank and
IMF policies prescribe a shift to export
crops and animal feed. As the Zapatistas
pronounced in a communique, NAFTA is
a "death sentence" for Indigenous people.
Land invasions have been organized
by indigenas and campesinos in order to
pressure the government to give them
more arable land. The revision of Article
2 7 states that anyone 'holding' private
land can be sentenced to 40 years in jail.
This 'holding' is essentially the only
means by which indigenas and
campesinos can reclaim land formerly
taken from them by ganaderos or landlords.
"But the government's solution to land
battles is to buy more arms and respond
with violence," says Maestro Rodolfo.
Violence was the response in the cool
hills of the Sierra Madre of Chiapas, as a
land battle erupted on the coffee finca of
Liquid Amber. In August 1994, an armed
group called the Union Popular Francisco
Villa (UPFV) took control of the finca and
held it for ten months.
"They held us in the office at gunpoint
for four days," says Gerardo Saenger
_ _ _ ___________ Continue on page~~
Abya Yala News

�S
Gonzalez, Liquid Amber's administrator.
"They killed the doctor and used the furniture for firewood."
When the UPFV grabbed the finca, its
owner, Lawrence Hulder, armed his
Guatemalan workers and tried to take it
back. When the efforts of his White
Guard proved to be unsuccessful, he
called in the police and military, which
arrived in helicopters to drive out the
UPFV
Saenger shakes his head when asked
if Liquid Amber has any White Guard.
"We just have to make a call down to
jaltenango if there are any problems."
But residents of the nearby ejido of
Nueva Palestina say the 100 White Guard
of Liquid Amber travel the road from the
finca to their town.
"We can't live a tranquil life," says
Luisa Montoya. "Not with the finca's pistoleros walking the streets."
The ejido and its marginalized community are surrounded by coffee fincas
and the El Triunfo Bioreserve, on which
they have not been allowed to cultivate-even though Liquid Amber already
has.
"The problems are coming from outside the ejido of Nueva Palestina," says
Saenger. "The villagers are calm until the
groups from the town of Venustiano
Carranza fill them with Marxist and communist ideas."
But problems do exist inside the
ejido, where Public Security roam the
streets and the Mexican Army and police,
having implemented an operation to capture opposition leaders sympathetic to
the Zapatistas, arrest and torture UPFV
organizers.
Marginalized societies of other areas
have also initiated land occupations when
given no other option. In April 1992,
indigenas battled the state police over
land that had been sequestered near
Palenque, Chiapas to make room for
"Mundo Maya", a tourist project celebrating the ancient Mayan heritage of the
same people the government murders.
Two hundred Chole Indians were tossed
in jail.
In protest, members of the
Indigenous organization called Xi Nich,
meaning "ants", marched 1,100 km to
Mexico City The federal government
ignored their grievances, just as they've
ignored the more recent warnings of
Indigenous leaders such as Xi Nich's
Victor Guzman, who stated at the Special
Vol. 10 No.3

E L F

DETERMiNATION

A N D

TERRITORY

COUNTRY."

Forum for Indigenous Rights in February
1995 that "the Indigenous problems of
Chiapas are the Indigenous problems of
the entire country"
The empowered elite of Mexico have
been receiving adequate warnings of
insurrection for a long time. In the book
of Chilam Balam, the Mayan gods dictated that "the shield shall descend, the
arrow shall descend ... together with the
rulers of the land."
In the states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and
Michoacan, there have been reports of the
formation of new opposition groups,
armed for self-preservation.
n the trendy city of San Cristobal de
las Casas, where tourists come to buy
Mayan crafts, sip coffee and listen to
folk artists sing about Che Guevara, an
Indigenous girl stands on a corner. She
watches a ladino girl of her same age walk

proudly to church wearing an elegant,
white dress. On the next street a group of
Tzotzil Indians carries the white casket of
a child off to another world. Road cuts
don't yield enough corn to live on.
In the same trendy city, Subcomandante
Marcos of the EZLN gives a press conference behind a black ski mask, smoking
his pipe, flanked by Comandantes David
and Tacho.
"The problems in this country are not just
in Chiapas. They also exist in Oaxaca,
Guerrero, Vera Cruz, Hidalgo ... "
Mexico has 31 states and a federal district. Subcomandante Marcos could have
gone on and on.~

Graphics by Brad Miller

29

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                    <text>S

E l F

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DETERMINATION

i

t the end of the 1960s the
contact of the Fanara Indians
(or Krenakorore, as they
were then known) became a
national drama in Brazil.
They were rumored to be giants, fierce
and elusive. As the contacting expedition
led by Claudio and Orlando Villas Boas
sought their villages only just in advance
of the engineers opening the CuiabaSantarem highway, they fled. Once contacted, they were devastated by new diseases, and reduced to beggary by the side
of the new road bisecting their traditional
territory In February 1975, less than two
years after the official contact, 79 demoralized survivors were transferred to the
Xingu National Park.
Now, two decades later, with much of
their territory overrun by gold mining,
ranching and logging, the Fanara have
returned to the remaining forest of their
traditional land in the upper watershed of
the Iriri River in northern Mato Grosso
and southern Para. Over the last four
years, the group has studied their territory, identified an area of 490,000 hectares
still forested and unoccupied, reestablished permanent occupation of the
region, and filed suit in federal court for
indemnification for losses and damages in
the contact and the transfer, as well as for
demarcation of their remaining land. In
December 1994, FUNAI identified the
area, beginning the process of official
recognition.
The recent history of the Fanara is
paradigmatic of larger processes in course
among Indigenous peoples in Brazilprocesses of demographic loss and recovery, ethnic and cultural reaffirmation, territorial reintegration. The history of the
Fanara illuminates tendencies general to

Steve Schwartzman did field work with the
Fanara between 1980 and 1983 and
recieved his PhD from the University of
Chicago based on this research. Since 1990
he has worked with the Fanara and the
Instituto Socioambiental in support of the
Fanara initiatve to reoccupy and defend
their traditional tet:ritory.

22

TERRITORY

il:

Indigenous peoples in Brazil, and also
contributes to important advances in
anthropology

are

Panara?

"I had never seen them but my grandfather told me, 'The whites are very
wild. They killed many of us with
guns. If they come to the village,
club them, they are dangerous!"'
(Ake Panani, interview, November
1991, Xingu Park)
When the Fanara were contacted on
the Peixoto de Azevedo river in january
1973, the media portrayed them as isolated stone age Indians. The anthropology
of the time viewed groups such as the
Fanara in more or less the same way-as
"subsistence" societies, whose culture and
society was best understood as an ancient
adaptation to particular ecological circumstances. Some scholars thought that
the societies, cultures and economies of
contemporary Amazonian societies were
the same as those of precolombian groups
and thus could serve to ground general
explanations of Indigenous societies as
adaptations to Amazonian ecosystems
(Meggers 1971 ). Recent historical and
ethnohistorical research has demonstrated to the contrary, that the present disposition and circumstances of Indigenous
societies result from their historical experience of contact with the surrounding
society, as well as from their internal
social and historical dynamics (cf
Carneiro da Cunha 1992). The Fanara are
a case in point.
Most of the Fanara alive when the
Villas Boas expedition arrived in the
Peixoto had never seen a white person.
But they preserved the memory of at least
two hundred years of war against the
Portuguese and then Brazilians.
The nine villages of Fanara, with some
350 to 600 inhabitants, that existed in
1967 in the Peixoto de Azevedo and
Upper Iriri basins were in fact the last
outpost of a much larger people, well

known to the chroniclers of the 18th and
19th centuries. Fanara oral traditions
relate that they came from the east, from
a savannah region, where they fought
white people with guns. Linguistic and
ethnohistorical research (Heelas 1980;
Schwartzman 1988, 1995; Giraldin
1994; Dourado and Rodri,oues 1993) has
now shown that the Fanara are the
descendants of the Southern Cayapo,
who in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries
occupied a vast territory between the
Triangulo Mineiro, western Sao Paulo,
Mato Grosso do Sul, Goias, and southern
Mato Grosso. Several bandeiras were sent
against them, most notably that of
Antonio Pires de Campos, who mobilized
Bororo Indians against them, and is
reported to have brought 2,000 Cayapo
back to Cuiaba as slaves. By the turn of
the century, they were considered to be
extinct.
In reality, the Fanara of the Peixoto
and Iriri rivers are the descendants of the
westernmost group of Southern Cayapo,
who refused peaceful contact and settlement, and withdrew in the later 19th or
early 20th century to the region in which
the "first contact" occurred in the 1960s.
Ethnohistory of both the Northern
Kayapo (a distinct group, belonging to
same linguistic subfamily, the Northern
Ge) and the Fanara attests that the Fanara
inhabited the Peixoto and Iriri basins by
the 1920s, when their war with the
Kayapo-a living memory for both
groups-began.
Attempts to explain Fanara customs
(some of which are reported from mid19th century settlements in Goias, such
as log racing and certain curing practices)
as "adaptations" to the forest ecosystem of
the Peixoto/lriri basins would then be
futile. Attempts to read from Fanara subsistence practices information on precolombian populations are equally misplaced. The Fanara in the late 1960s were
extremely well "adapted" to the tropical
forest ecosystem of the Peixoto and Iriri
rivers, practicing a diversified, and highly
symbolically elaborated agriculture with
geometrically designed gardens and fixed
Continue on page 23
Abya Yala News

�S
locations in the garden for given
crops, as well as fishing, hunting,
and collecting a wide variety of forest fruits. By all the accounts of the
older Panara who grew up in the
region, their modest technologystone axes, bows and arrows, clubs,
basketry, rudimentary ceramics and
no canoes-provided an abundant
livelihood. But in the 1960s the
Panara had lived there for no more
than 100 years.
On the other hand, the historical record makes clear that Panara
of the 1960s were neither passive
victims of the conquest, nor slaves
to an inflexible subsistence adaptation. They had on the contrary
actively rejected settlement and
assimilation, and adjusted quickly
and effectively to a vastly different
environment in the course of securing their independence. Panara
society and culture equally demonstrate this dynamic quality: clearly, elements of the new tropical forest ecosystem (and the economy the Panara devised
to make a living there) were integrated
into Panara ritual and cosmology and to
the process of their transformation. Brazil
nuts, for example, which do not occur in
the savannah, are a key symbolic reference in Panara myths, as well as in the ritual cycle.
Further, the memory of the two hundred year war that drove the Panara from
Sao Paulo to northern Mato Grosso was
to have a decisive influence on the Panara
understanding of the contact with the
Villas Boas expeditions and the tragedy
that ensued on it.

First Contact Again
The Panara probably settled in the
Peixoto/Iriri because of the region's
wealth of natural resources, and its isolation. The life histories of older Panara
men invariably include extensive
accounts of long expeditions, to visit kin,
flee internal conflicts, or found new villages, before the arrival of the Villas Boas
expeditions. In these narratives, the men
recount that, arriving in a new place, they
would search the forest for signs of enemies (hi'pe - 'enemies, others, whites').
Having assured themselves that there
were no enemies and no enemies' trails
nearby, they would stay and plant gardens.
Vol. 10 No.3

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DETERMiNATION

In 1967, two events presaged the end
of the Fanara's autonomy. First, the
Mekragnoti Kayapo attacked the northernmost Panara village, Sonkenasan, in
the Iriri basin, for the first time with a
large supply of guns and ammunition.
While the Panara had raided, and been
raided by the Kayapo for a generation,
guns and ammunition turned the 1967
raid into a massacre. Some 26 Panara
were killed and the village burned. The
survivors fled to another village, and by
the time a war party was mounted to
avenge the attack, the Kayapo had fled.
Then, the incident came to the attention
of Villas Boas brothers, then directing the
Xingu National Park, who mounted a
contacting expedition. When the first airplanes arrived over the Panara villages,
and began dropping trade goodsknives, machetes, beads-there began a
debate amongst the Panara that would
continue for the next five years. Were the
airplanes (and later the expedition) "wild"
Casar)? Did they mean to kill the Panara,
as historic experience suggested, or were
the gifts of goods evidence of peaceful
intentions?
The elder men (taputunara) argued,
say present-day chiefs such as Ake and
Teseya, that the whites were wild and
dangerous, and counseled attack or flight,
while the young men (pientwara) held
that the goods left by the expedition
showed peaceful intent. and argued for
getting the goods left by the expedition,

A N D

TERRITORY

and making contact.
From 1967 to 1973, the elders prevailed. The first expedition was recalled
in 1969 when funds were cut off, and a
second expedition was only launched in
1972, as an advance team of surveyors
was laying out the route of the Cuiaba Santarem highway. The Panara, already
having abandoned their easternmost villages, then withdrew south before this
expedition, which set out from the
Cachimbo airbase. With the abandonment of successive villages and gardens,
increasing numbers of people were concentrated in fewer and fewer villages.
When the Villas Boas reached the Peixoto
de Azevedo, the Panara, after collecting
trade goods at the expedition's advance
post, crossed the river and occupied the
village of Yopuyepaw. The first epidemic
struck there. So many people died, and so
debilitated were the survivors that they
could not bury the dead, and vultures ate
them. After the survivors recovered, they
returned to the Peixoto, and accepted
contact.
In 1974, the road opened. The
Panara, fascinated by the traffic on the
road, confounded efforts by the National
Indian Foundation (FUNAI) personnel to
prevent them from mingling with the
army engineers, and passing truckers.
Ensuing deaths triggered witchcraft accusations, since witchcraft was the traditional explanation for serious illness. At
least 176 people died of epidemic disContinue on page 24

23

j

�S

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DETERMINATION

eases between 1973 and 1975, when the
surviving 79 Fanara were transferred by
FUNAI to the Xingu National Park The
Peixoto de Azevedo was thrown open to
gold mining and colonization immediately thereafter, and the small area reserved
for the Fanara during the contact was
transferred to IN CRA for agrarian reform.

The Diaspora
The Fanara arrived in the Xingu sick,
demoralized, and disoriented. The group
was settled in the Kajabi village of
Prepuri, where several more died in the
first months. The Fanara began to talk of
returning to their land. Instead they were
moved to the Kayapo village of Kretire
and delivered to their traditional enemies.
Before the year was out ten more Fanara
had died, as new diseases continued.
English anthropologist Richard Heelas,
who lived with the Fanara in this period
described them as walking corpses. They
were again removed (although a number
of women and children were constrained
to stay with the Kayapo), and settled with
the Suya. In a less oppressive climate,
new leaders emerged, and began to mobilize the Fanara to perform traditional
dances and songs. Once the Fanara
founded their first village in Xingu, in
1977, their population began to increase.
They began a gradual process of reconstituting their society and culture. When I
conducted field work between 1980 and

24

A N D

TERRITORY

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

1983 with the Fanara, they described
their traditional village as having men's
houses in the center of the village plaza,
in the middle of the circle of extended
family households grouped into four
clans, with fixed locations on the village
circle. The Fanara said that when there
were more boys, they would build men's
houses (traditionally the place of residence of pre-adolescent, unmarried
boys). In 1991, when I returned to the
Xingu, they had built a men s house.
In 20 years in the Xingu, the Fanara
adapted effectively to a new ecosystem,
adopted new technology (learning to
build canoes, crucial in the flood plain of
the Xingu, and to fish with hook and line,
hunt with guns, and grow new cultivars
from surrounding groups). They now
number about 160, with at least 60% of
the population under 20 years old, and
more than half under 14. They have
recovered as much autonomy as any of
the 16 other Indigenous groups that live
in the Xingu. But the Fanara never reconciled themselves to living in the Xingu.
They have lived in seven places, in a permanent search for land resembling the
region of the Peixoto and Iriri. From the
perspective of the Fanara, the difference
between their land and the Xingu is that
between wealth and poverty, and their
passage through the Xingu a process of
impoverishment.
Their concept of the land changed as
well over the last decade. In 1983 when

the Fanara spoke of land (kupa), they
referred to earth or soil. They discussed
the Peixoto and Iriri region in terms of
places, villages, gardens or rivers. but not
as something which could be owned. By
1991 the Fanara spoke regularly of "the
land of the Fanara," (Fanara nho kupa).
They had developed a sense of their land,
as something to which they had rights.

The Panara Return
"Where will all the children live
that are growing up and will have
children of their own? Here in this little piece of other peoples land where
we are? When I think of the children I
am sad. How will they live when they
grow up?" (Ake Panani, interview,
Xingu National Park, October 1991).
By 1990, the Fanara found themselves
increasingly the victims of their own success. With a growing population and a
vital ceremonial life, they had moved to
the western boundary of the Park, on the
Arraias River, where they found forest
that more closely resembled their traditional land. The best hunting territory,
however, was outside the Park on private
land, where the Fanara began hunting
and fishing.
In the same year a group of Fanara
killed a ranch hand in a dispute. Leaders
such as chiefs Ake and Teseya became
increasingly concerned with the
future ofthe group. With a young
and rapidly increasing population, they were caught between
the approaching deforestation
outside the Park, and the other
groups within the Park, also growing, and already long established
on much of the best land. Once
again, the Fanara's attention
turned to their traditional land.
They sought help from FUNAI
and several non-governmental
organizations active in the
Xingu-(which now form the
Instituto
Socioambiental)-as
well as my help, as the anthropologist who had lived longest
among them.
In November 1991 a group of six
Fanara men returned for the first
time to their traditional territory:
They witnessed the ecological
effect of nearly twenty years of
Continue on page 25
Abya Yala News

�S
gold mining in the Peixoto de Azevedo, as
well as ranching and colonization and the
boom towns left in their wake. Their ter-.
ritory in the Peixoto had been occupied
and very largely degraded. Flying over
the region, however, they discovered that
the lriri basin was still unoccupied and
forested. From that moment they began
to formulate a plan to return to the area.
Between 1992 and 1994 groups of men
returned repeatedly, to locate former village sites, take cognizance of the processes in course in the area and plan their
reoccupation of the region. In 1993, they
reached an airstrip near the headwaters of
the lriri, and determined that the supposed owner was subdividing an area of
public land under the control of the
National Institute for Agrarian Reform
(INCRA) for sale-a process of land
fraud. The Panara recognized that they
would have to act quickly if the lriri
headwaters were not to succumb to the
uncontrolled occupation that had already
devastated the Peixoto.
In the dry season of 1994, the Panara
identified a new village site on the lriri,
not far from an historic landmark they
had recognized from the air, the Great
Lake (inkotunsi), the spot where the
Panara of Sonkenasan village had intended to make a new village in 1967, before
the Kayapo attack. They set to work
building a village, gardens and an airstrip
to facilitate access for health care. In
August 1994, through their attorneys at
the Nucleo de Direitos lndigenas, the
Panara filed two lawsuits in federal court
in Brasilia, seeking indemnification of
losses and damages suffered in the contact and transfer, and the demarcation of
their remaining traditional land.
In October 1994, a FUNAI and
INCRA team lead by anthropologist Ana
Gita de Oliveira identified the area, verifying the presence of the Panara in the village and determining traditional resource
use and the boundaries of the area. Two
days after the FUNAI team had left the
village, a group of armed men appeared
in the village, alleging to have been sent
by the Mayor of the regional town of
Guaranta looking for the FUNAI team.
After a tense discussion, the group left.
In December 1994, the president of
FUNAI published the decree (portaria)
recognizing the Panara's rights to an area
of 488.000 hectares in northern Mato
Grosso and southern Para states in the
Diario Oficial. Subsequently modified to

E l F

DETERMINATION- -AND - TERRITORY
---

remove an area titled to private interests,
the revised area (490,000 hectares) is
awaiting the signature of the Minister of
Justice for its demarcation to proceed.
In October 1995, a group of Panara
families moved to the new village,
brought in successive flights by a FUNAI
plane. Their airstrip is in operation, their
gardens are growing, and some 65 Panara
now reside there. They are engaged in
building houses and planting more gardens so that the rest of the group can join
them. The Panara are aware that the
edges of their land have already been
invaded by loggers and that the grileiro
maintains a presence in the southwestern
corner of the area . But they remain convinced that their future is in the reoccupation of the area, and the defense of its
natural resources against depredation.

one language, have developed and elaborated a diversity of languages and social
and cultural forms-men's societies, age
grades, "formal friendship", joking and
avoidance relations, kinship, marriage
and naming systems, ritual complexesall of which, while distinct, bear "family
resemblances" to one another., much like
the relations of cognate words in related
languages to one another.
It is still common to assume that
Indigenous peoples Brazil are a vanishing
race, doomed to succumb to the pressure
of superior technology and disappear into the surrounding society
Behind this idea is
a notion of culture
as
static
and
unchanging-culture as a sort of
FUll CIRThe Future
an Illusion the
laundry list of
of the Vanishing
traits. If an Indian
wears
clothes,
and Culture as laundry list
speaks Portuguese,
In little more than twenty years, the or plants rice, then
Panara have come full circle, from the he is no longer a
paradigmatic "victims of the miracle" of "real" Indian.
Anthropology
the military government, on the brink of
cultural if not physical extinction, to pro- has in the past lent
tagonists of the successful recreation of credence to such
their own society and culture. The beliefs by,
for
process of territorial reintegration was the example, attemptconsequence of this: only in reinventing ing to explain culPHYSICAl
traditional leadership, and satisfying tural and social
EXTINCTION, TO
as
themselves that it could be both adequate organization
to the challenges of life among other peo- adaptations in an
OF
time
ple, and legitimate with reference to tra- ecological
ditional knowledge-of myths, rituals, frame to given
RECREATION
or
songs, dances, the proper ordering of ecosystems,
work and sociability-could the Panara indeed by focusing
form the necessary consensus to take on on the reproducthis task. The reconstruction of Panara tion of Indigenous
society was in short also its recreation, its social
organizatransformation. But not for the first tions to the exclutime-the historical record of the sion of history As
Southern Cayapo demonstrates that the both the short and
ancestors of the present Panara under- longer views of the history of the Panara
took an epic migration, involving a radi- demonstrate, culture, rather than a list of
cal shift in ecological adaptation from traits or institutions, is better understood
savannah to closed tropical forest, and as the capacity for collective self-creation
also changing culturally Nor was this or reinvention (Turner 1995). In this conprocess of change, impelled by the pres- text, what is exceptional about the drasure of the frontier though it was, unique. matic story of the Panara is its unexcepA longer comparative view of the lan- tionality
Most of the Indigenous peoples in
guages and cultures of the Northern Ge
linguistic family shows that for several Brazil have passed, like the Panara,
thousand years (ef Urban 1992 ), these through a succession of "first contacts,"
groups, descended from the speakers of lost population to new diseases, have
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ C_9)1tinue on page 38
- - : - - c - - - - : - c - - : - - - : : - - - - - - - - - - -·-·-·------·
25
Vol. 10 No.3
m

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Continued from page on page 25
moved or been removed from traditional
territories. Many, like the Guarani in
Mato Grosso do Sul, have returned to
lands from which they were removed.
The Indigenous population in Brazil
reached its nadir in the 1970s and has
grown since. In 1990, there were some
235,000 Indians in Brazil, while today
there are 270,000. The Indigenous popu-

, I

t

lation in Brazil is, like the Fanara, small
but growing. The resistance of
Indigenous peoples, and their capacity
for self-recreation even in extremely
adverse circumstances, is the sine qua
non behind increasing official recognition
of Indigenous land rights. When the
National Indian Foundation was created
in 1967, as the contact of the Fanara was
starting, an infinitesimal quantity of
Indian land was officially recognized as
such by the federal government. Today,
Indigenous peoples have constitutionally
guaranteed rights to some 11% of Brazil's
territory, although only part of this area
has been fully officially documented.
A plethora of histories like that of the
Fanara have shattered the illusion of the
vanishing Indian. In so doing, they have
better informed both national Indigenous
policy, and scientific understanding of
the depth and dynamics of Indigenous
culture and history '9
References Cited
Carneiro da Cunha, Manuela (org). 1992.
Hist6ria dos Indios no Brasil. Editora
Schwarcz, Sao Paulo.
Dourado, Luciana and Aryan Rodrigues.
1993. Fanara: Indentificar,;ao Linguistica
dos Kren-Akarorore com os Cayapo do
Sul, comunicar,;ao ao 450. Reuniao Anual
da Sociedade Brasileira pelo Progesso da
Ciencia, Universidade Federal de
Pernambuco, Recife, 11 - 16 julho.
Giraldin, Odair. 1994. Cayapo e Fanara:
Luta e sobrevivencia de um povo,
Dissertar,;ao de Mestrado apresentado ao

MIAMI.
P-H/FX (305)
Departamento de Antropologia, Universidade
Estadual de Campinas, Sao Paulo.
Guidon, Niede. 1992. As ocupar,;oes prehist6ricas do Brasil, in Hist6ria dos Indios
no Brasil, Manuela Carneiro da Cunha
(org.), Editora Schwarcz, Sao Paulo.
Heelas, Richard. 1979. The Social
Organization of the Fanara, a Ge Tribe of
Central Brazil. Doctoral Dissertation, St.
Catherine's College, Oxford University.
Meggers, B.]. 1971. Amazonia: Man and
culture in a counterfit paradise. Chicago,
A/dine-Atherton.
Schwartzman, Stephan. 1988. The Fanara
of the Xingu National Park: the transformation of a society. Doctoral Dissertation,
Department of Anthropology, University of
Chicago. 1995.
The Fanara: Indigenous Territory and
Environmental Protection in the Amazon,
in Local Heritage in the Changing Tropics:
innovative strategies for natural resource
management and control, Greg Dicum
(ed.), Bulletin Series, Yale School of
Forestry and Environmental Studies,
Number 98. New Haven, Connecticut.
Turner, Terence. 1995. Indigenous Rights,
Environmental Protection and the Struggle
over Forest Resources in the Amazon: The
case of the Brazilian Kayapo. mss.
Urban, Greg. 1992. A hist6ria da cultura
brasileira segundo as linguas nativas, in
Hist6ria dos Indios no Brazil, Manuela
Carneiro da Cunha (org.), Editor a
Schwarcz, Sao Paulo.
(a previous version of this article appearded
in the Brazilian magazine Ciencia Hoje)

~---------

38

Abya Yala News

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