Indians Brazil

Heavy tropical rains are stalling a government effort to relocate thousands of gold prospectors who have illegally invaded tribal lands of Brazil's Yanomami Indians and endangered their pristine society, a Justice Ministry spokesman said Wednesday. A gold rush that began in 1987 has lured the prospectors to large areas of Yanomami land, exposing the previously isolated Indians to diseases and disrupting their traditional means of livelihood.

By the slow-moving Tapajos River, monkeys murmur in the forest and Munduruku Indians with bows and arrows tiptoe along the riverbank, hunting turtles. Two boys fish for the family lunch, not even bothering with bait. To attract the piranha, they simply bang on the side of their boat. It's a picture that suggests an Amazon idyll of life intertwined with nature. But in fact the Munduruku are caught between two worlds, and they fear that one may soon be trampled by the other.

The dwindling Indians of Brazil implored Pope John Paul II on Wednesday to help awaken international awareness of dire threats to their survival. The Pope met with 150 Indian representatives on the sweltering back patio of a Roman Catholic social agency in this western Brazilian city, a gateway to the vast Amazon forest.

Federal Indian agents said they have discovered a tribe of hunters living in near-inaccessible reaches of the Amazon rain forest. "We ran into them by accident," said Sydney Possuelo, who heads the Federal Indian Bureau's Department of Isolated Indians. He first encountered the tribe's dozen huts two months ago while flying over Acre state, near Brazil's western border with Peru. Very little is known about the tribe's 200 members.

On the southeastern side of Brazil's Amazon rain forest, the Kayapo Indians struck it rich. Or at least some of them did. Men who had once painted their faces and hunted naked in the jungle were living in town, sporting designer jeans and sunglasses, driving new pickups, hiring pilots for their private planes. It was easy money, millions of dollars.

When the reports dribbled into his office here last week, Benigno Pessoa Marques, an area superintendent for Indian affairs, knew they spelled trouble, possibly murderous trouble. About 100 loggers and their families had invaded the Arara Indian reservation deep in the Amazon forest 300 miles southwest of this northern city. Such incidents are familiar to Americans mostly from old Western movies, but they occur often in modern-day Brazil.

Fifteen Brazilian Indians, including six children, were slain by a gang of timber thieves in a remote Amazon border region, a survivor said. The survivor, an Indian named Santo, said the massacre occurred earlier this week in the Indian area of Sao Leopoldo near the border with Colombia. An official of the Indigenous Missionary Council, linked to the Roman Catholic Church, confirmed the number of deaths and said that 21 others were injured.

Federal Indian agents said they have discovered a tribe of hunters living in near-inaccessible reaches of the Amazon rain forest. "We ran into them by accident," said Sydney Possuelo, who heads the Federal Indian Bureau's Department of Isolated Indians. He first encountered the tribe's dozen huts two months ago while flying over Acre state, near Brazil's western border with Peru. Very little is known about the tribe's 200 members.

Thousands of gold prospectors agreed to leave the Amazon lands of the Yanomami tribe, the Brazilian justice minister said. Under the agreement, the 40,000 diggers will be transferred, along with their equipment, to three other areas of Roraima state. Human rights groups say that half of the 7,000 Yanomami in the region are sick with malaria, a disease brought by the prospectors, and hundreds have died.

Two Brazilian Indian leaders, on trial for speaking in the United States against dam projects that would flood tribal lands in Brazil, said Friday that they are mobilizing thousands of other Amazon Indians in a protest campaign. "We are going to continue our struggle," said Paulinho Paiakan, a Kaiapo chieftain. "We are not going to let them build those dams." Speaking at a Rio press conference, Paiakan vowed that if work starts on the planned dams, Indians will occupy the construction camps.

Ten people have killed themselves since the beginning of the year in this rural community of 3,200 Guarani Indians. The youngest suicide was Fortunata Escobar, 10. Fortunata's father had been away for more than a month, working for a distillery. Her mother had died earlier in the year. Eight brothers and sisters were staying by themselves in the family's rustic hut, with thatched roof and dirt floor.

On the southeastern side of Brazil's Amazon rain forest, the Kayapo Indians struck it rich. Or at least some of them did. Men who had once painted their faces and hunted naked in the jungle were living in town, sporting designer jeans and sunglasses, driving new pickups, hiring pilots for their private planes. It was easy money, millions of dollars.

When the reports dribbled into his office here last week, Benigno Pessoa Marques, an area superintendent for Indian affairs, knew they spelled trouble, possibly murderous trouble. About 100 loggers and their families had invaded the Arara Indian reservation deep in the Amazon forest 300 miles southwest of this northern city. Such incidents are familiar to Americans mostly from old Western movies, but they occur often in modern-day Brazil.

The Yanomami forest people cremate the bones of their dead and grind them into dust, which they sometimes eat in a plantain gruel as they wail and weep in mourning. They observe a strict taboo against mentioning Yanomamis who have died, except during this funeral ritual.

Amazonian Indians angered by the murder of their chief's son have seized 400 hostages on a jungle highway, officials said Thursday. The hostages were taken Tuesday by Guajajara Indians, who surrounded eight passenger buses and three trucks as they were driving along a remote Amazon highway. The hostages have gone without food and water in the harsh sun since Tuesday, the National Indian Foundation said.

The dwindling Indians of Brazil implored Pope John Paul II on Wednesday to help awaken international awareness of dire threats to their survival. The Pope met with 150 Indian representatives on the sweltering back patio of a Roman Catholic social agency in this western Brazilian city, a gateway to the vast Amazon forest.

A month ago, as Indian children searched his hair for insects and sucked poison from tiny bites on his arms and legs, Michael Stuart Ani lay dozing in a hammock in the Amazon. It was hot, and he was reveling in the social grooming that is a sign of affection among the Yanomamo, the "fierce people" of Venezuela and Brazil with whom he has lived off and on for five years.

Thousands of gold prospectors expelled from Yanomami Indian lands have invaded other Amazon reserves and spread malaria among the tribes, an Indian chief said. The claim was made Thursday as representatives from 12 indigenous groups of the far-western Amazon state of Roraima came to the capital in search of medical aid. Makuxi Chief Jaci said about 8,000 invading gold miners are spreading malaria in his 12,000-member tribe.