TEKOHAW, Brazil (AP) — Under a perch in the Amazon rainforest, bow-and-arrow warriors, painted-faced tribal chiefs and breastfeeding mothers, met to discuss a plan that some hope to keep lumberjacks and other invaders who threaten tribes I feared. Some traveled from afar along unpaved roads through the thick jungle or by boat along a tributary of the Amazon River, all part of the 2,766 square kilometer (1,080 square mile) territory of the Alto Río Guama which is officially officially protected, but in practice it is under siege.
There were men with the typical red paint on their faces that means they’re ready for war. In recent clashes, the Tembé set fire to trucks and equipment of illegal lumberjacks on their territory, which is located in a Brazilian state plagued by thousands of fires on land that were dismantled. HELP US Click the Google News star and follow some of us had hopes for the sustainable development plan presented this week at a meeting in the village of Tekohaw. The plan includes drones and other technology to contain the invasion while helping the tembé make money with the production of bananas, aaí and wood on a limited basis in one part of their jungle, hopefully no faster than it takes the jungle to recover. At one point, a group of women and children were formed to perform a tribal call-and-response dance that they say will give strength and understanding to the participants. However, many remain wary, some afraid that the plan was very similar to President Jair Bolsonaro’s calls to open indigenous lands to development as a way to stimulate the nation’s economy.” For us indigenous people, this project is worrying because we fought for the protection of the territory,” said Valsanta Tembé, president of the Tekohaw Indigenous Women’s Association, who was wearing a mask painted with the red tint of achiote seeds.
“How can we be in favor of a project that will willingly or will not cause the felling of our native trees?” he asked. “Our future is at stake.”
Murilo Araújo, environmental lawyer at Unifloresta, the Amazon Rainforest Productive Chain Association, said that distrust is normal.” Over these 500 years, they were always enslaved, marginalized. Everyone who came here always took something from them and left nothing in return,” he said. We talk about permanent jungle management so they can sustain themselves in the long run, fix their ways, buy drugs and invest in their young people,” he added. The products would be sold to companies around the world that sell sustainably produced goods. He added that he hoped the project would help them avoid conflict. “Currently they have to set fire to trucks, which for them is a natural defense mechanism,” Araújo said. “But that can have drastic consequences. It could lead to deaths. Why do they do it? Because it takes too long for the authorities to get there.” Brazil’s 900,000 indigenous people represent 5% of the country’s total population, and its reserves represent 14% of the country’s territory. Bolsonaro has argued that such reserves have hindered Brazil’s economic interests. However, for the indigenous people of Latin America’s largest economy, everything is at stake.” The Amazon is over and that’s why we’re here… so it doesn’t end,” said Lorival Tembé, the oldest chief and founder of Tekohaw. “We can’t let it all be over: birds, all other animals. We’re worried. We used to drink water from our river and now it’s contaminated. A lot has changed. Bolsonaro wants to take down the Indians, but we’re not here to defend ourselves against that.”
“The world sees what happens to the Amazon,” said his son Sergio Muxi Tembé, the current head of the village.
“We know that Bolsonaro doesn’t like indigenous people. It is anti-indigenous,” said the chief, who was wearing a feathered headdress of macaw and other birds, orange shorts and a traditional bone bracelet next to a Casio digital clock. “We have a different culture and it must be respected.” Some 600 tribe members live in Tekohaw, which is located on the banks of the Gurupi River where many catch piranhas and other fish that then roast. Deep in the jungle, armed with bows and arrows, hunt birds, pigs and other animals. From the trees they take traditional medicines, as well as products that sell, such as aaí, an Amazonian berry that in Brazil is a typical vitamin and caloric food for breakfast. On that day classes were cancelled and life in the village seemed to be on hiatus so that the Tembé tribes could debate for hours the points for and against the project, moving from Portuguese to their native Tupi-Guarani language. At some point, Unifloresta members who presented the plan walked away to allow the fears to argue with each other and delivered sweets to a group of children near the local school where the walls are painted with handicrafts, alligators and other animals Amazonian. In the end, the group of representatives of nine tribes decided that they had to wait for more details on the plan.
