'The world is watching what's happening in the Amazon.' Indigenous peoples gather to debate how to save their lands, under threat from all sides.
In this Sept. 3, 2019 photo, a man plays a horn during a meeting of Tembé tribes in Tekohaw indigenous reserve, Para state, Brazil. Under a thatch-roof shelter in the Amazon rainforest, warriors wielding bows and arrows, elderly chieftains in face paint and nursing mothers gathered to debate a plan that some hope will hold at bay the loggers and other invaders threatening the tribes of the Tembe.
Some of the men wore a type of red face paint that signified they were ready for war. Recent clashes saw the Tembe burning the trucks and equipment of illegal loggers on their territory, which is located in a Brazilian state plagued by thousands of fires burning on cleared jungle lands. “For us, the indigenous, this project is worrisome because we fight in favor of the protection of the territory,” said Valsanta Tembé, president of Tekohaw’s women’s indigenous association, who wore a mask made with red dye from urucum seeds.
“Throughout these 500 years, they were always enslaved, sidelined. Everyone who came here always took something from them and didn’t leave anything behind,” he said. Brazil’s 900,000 indigenous people make up about 5% of the country’s population and their reservations account for about 14% of its territory. Bolsonaro has argued that such large reserves have hindered Brazil’s economic interests. But the indigenous people of Latin America’s largest economy have everything at stake.
“We know Bolsonaro doesn’t like Indians. He’s anti-Indian,” said the chief, who wore a headdress of macaw and other feathers, orange shorts and a traditional bone bracelet on his wrist next to a Casio digital watch. “We have a different culture and that culture must be respected.”
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