The Brazilian government is planning to build what would be the world%uFFFDs third largest dam on the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon. The Xingu River in northeast Brazil is a tributary of the Amazon River. The Belo Monte Dam, meant principally to fuel the expansion of aluminum foundries and other industrial plants in the Amazon, would require diverting nearly the entire flow of the Xingu, drying up the Big Bend of the Xingu and its tributary, the Bacaj%uFFFD, home to hundreds of indigenous people. Native people upstream would also be affected by the dam%uFFFDs impacts on fish stocks, their principal food source.

In May, one thousand indigenous people, in addition to social movements and environmentalists gathered in the town of Altamira, on the Xingu River, to protest the plans for Belo Monte and other dams on the Xingu. In the Xingu Forever Alive letter, they stated "We will not accept the construction of dams, large or small, on the Xingu and its tributaries". The Amazon basin with its intact rainforests and rivers is a critical ecosystem that must remain intact for the Planet to remain inhabitable. Please tell Brazil%uFFFDs President Lula and other decision makers in the Brazilian government that you support the position of indigenous peoples of the rainforest - that Brazil has better ways of providing its future energy needs than destroying the mighty Xingu River. The plans for the dams should be cancelled."

There is a further problem here. Green incorporated are using Indians for theirs own ideals. In my case in am concerned by the Indians only. I am for actions that help indigenous people to progress, and there are good examples of that. Even in Brazil there have been changes.

Maybe some environmentalist, like so many other outsiders, are using the indigenous peoples for their own purposes. But much worse than the environmental groups are the churches, different capitalist companies and enterprises, farmers, settlers and the state who just want to change the indigenous peoples and incorporate them into the capitalist economy, so they can use them as cheap labour, costumers and faithful churchmemebers who support greedy priests and missionaries.

Many times environmental issues and indigenous issues are linked together. In many places the indigenous peoples are the guardians of still realatively undisturbed and clean environments. If one goes outside the land belonging to these peoples one is met by destruction and pollution.

And the indigenous peoples are changing, no culture stands totally still. But they don´t need others to tell them how they shall change, they don´t need others stealing and destroying their lands and forcing them to change in a way they didn´t choose themselves.

Just listen to what these peoples say, listen to their prostests against the destruction of their environment and the land where they have their homes. They themselves must descide when and how they shall change, not greedy capitalists or corrupt state officials.

If you want to help natives in the Amazon, move there. Get lawyers, etc. There are foreigners that have died defending theirs causes and legitimate rights. That's the only way to help.

I have friends over there so I will probably go there in the near future.

How can one talk about native rights if the native peoples doesn´t even have the right to keep their own land? What kind of right is that? What kind of right is it to have ones land destroyed, polluted, drowned and stolen? What kind of rights is it to see greedy capitalists and corrupt officials invading ones homes and coming with a lot of false promises about money, education and other things that they never will keep?

The dam has actually been stopped once before and can be stopped again, the indigenous peoples and their friends will do whatever they can to see to that. The indigenous peoples are very determined in this matter. They have faced so much abuse, gotten so much taken away from them and been promised so many things, things that they never got, that they really are prepared to do everything possible to stop the destruction of their homes, culture and life.

And they educate themselves, together with other indigenous groups, and other friends, so they will not be victims of the governments (and it´s allies) deceit and lies.

And there are actually a lot of truly progressive people that are prepared to help them in their struggle.

Xingu Forever Alive May 26, 2008

We, representatives of indigenous peoples, river bank dwellers, gatherers of forest products, family farmers, urban dwellers, social movements, and non-governmental organizations of the Xingu basin met in the Xingu Forever Alive encounter, in the city of Altamira, Par%uFFFD state, Brazilian Amazon, between May 19 and 23, 2008 to discuss, recognize, and repudiate the threats to the river which is ours, and of which we are part, in order to reaffirm the type of development that we want for our region.

We who are the ancestral inhabitants of the Xingu Basin, whose course and whose tributaries we navigated to meet here, from where we catch the fish that nourish us, on the purity of whose water we depend on to be able to drink without worrying about getting sick, on the regime of whose floods and ebb we depend for our agriculture, whose forest products we collect, and which we pay reverence to and whose beauty and generosity we celebrate with every new day; our culture, our spirituality, and our survival are deeply rooted in the Xingu, and we depend on it for our existence.

We who have maintained and protected our forests and the natural resources of our territories in the midst of the destruction which has bled the Amazon feel that our dignity has been demeaned and that we have not been respected by the Brazilian Government and private dam-building groups planning dams on the Xingu and its tributaries, principally Belo Monte Dam. At no time have they asked us what we want for our future. At no time have they asked us what we think regarding the building of hydroelectric dams, and not even the indigenous people were consulted %u2013 a right guaranteed to them by law. Despite this fact, Belo Monte has been presented by the government as a done deal, even though its viability has been questioned.

We are aware that diverting the Xingu at its Big Bend will cause permanent flooding upstream, displacing thousands of river bank families and residents of the city of Altamira, affecting agriculture, extractivism, and biodiversity, and flooding our beaches. On the other hand, the dam would practically dry up more than 100 kilometers of the river, making navigation, fishing, and the use of water impossible for many communities, including various indigenous lands and reserves.

We are also concerned about the construction of Small Hydroelectric Dams (PCHs), on the rivers at the headwaters of the Xingu. Some have already been built and others have been authorized, without any evaluation of the impacts that these dams will cause to the 14 indigenous peoples living in the Xingu Indigenous Park. These dams profane their sacred sites and can destroy the fish which nourish them.

Therefore, we, Brazilian citizens, publicly communicate to our society and to our federal, state, and local government authorities our decision to defend our rights and those of our children and grandchildren to live with dignity, to keep our homes and our territories, our cultures and ways of life, honoring our ancestors as well who left us a healthy environment. We will not accept the construction of dams, large or small, on the Xingu and its tributaries, and we will continue fighting against the imposition of a development model which is socially unjust and environmentally destructive, and which today is represented by the increase in the illegal grabbing of public lands, by illegal logging operations, by clandestine gold mines which kill our rivers, and by the expansion of agricultural monocultures and extensive cattle ranching which cut down our forests.

We, who know the river at its every bend, wish to tell Brazilian society and to demand from public authorities the implementation of our development project for the region, which includes:

1. The creation of a forum bringing together the peoples of the basin in order to permit a permanent conversation regarding the future of our river, eventually creating a Xingu River Basin Committee;

2. The consolidation and effective protection of Conservation Units and Indigenous Lands and the investigation and legalization of land titles on public lands in the Xingu basin;

3. The immediate creation of the Middle Xingu Extractive Reserve;

4. The immediate demarcation of the Cachoeira Seca Indigenous Territory, and the fair resettlement of its non-indigenous inhabitants, as well as the removal of invaders of the Parakan%uFFFD Indigenous Territory;

5. The taking of measures which effectively halt deforestation, including illegal logging and land grabbing;

6. Additional public policies providing incentives for sustainable extraction of forest products and support for family farming on an agroecological basis and which value and stimulate the commercialization of forest products;


7. Public policies capable of promoting the improvement and the installation of urban water and sewer treatment systems.

8. An increase in public policies to meet the demand for healthcare, education, transportation, and public safety, in a manner consistent with our reality;

9. Development of public policies which broaden and democratize social communication media;

10. More public policies for recuperation of gallery forests and areas degraded by ranching, logging, and mining;

11. Prohibiting the damming of the Xingu headwaters, as already took place with the construction of the Paranatinga II small dam on the Culuene River;

12. The effective protection of the great biodiversity corridor formed by the indigenous lands and conservation units of the Xingu.

We, who have protected our Xingu River do not accept the invisibility with which they wish to impose decisions upon us, nor the way we are treated with disdain by public officials. The way we are presenting ourselves to the country is through our dignity, the knowledge we have inherited, and the teachings by which we can transmit the respect that we demand.

This is our desire, this is our struggle. We want the Xingu forever alive.

Altamira, May 23, 2008. "

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-xingu-peoples-from-destruction - http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-xingu-peoples-from-destruction

Traditionals ways of living must change for people to progress. This is the way Latin Americans want to see theirs Indians. That they have the oportunities they deserve.

 

Getting organized against thugs (Ecuador)

 

 

But mainly, going to School.

 

Brazil

 

 

And with respect to the preservation of the native culture, that can be done as well, without keeping people stuck in the jungle. Here, children listening to a shaman about the medical properties of plants. There are organized programs these days that are preserving that knowledge, because people is going to change.

 

 

 

Indigenous people are Latin Americans, they are our people. We are indigenous at least in part, if you aren't aware of. Besides, it is disgusting the hypocrecy of activists comming from developed countries, that enjoy all the fruits of economic development, to teach lessons of poverty to natives. And also to tell our countries to stop to develop, while they consume more resources from the Earth than anyone else. Even more, the idea that our countries don't have people fighting with the indigenous for theirs rights is disgusting. The fight for rights of the poors in general, and the indigenous in particular, has been the cause of many guerrilla wars and injustices for more than a century, all over Latin America. These days people is a lot more concient in human rights, and also more educated, and the fight for the right things to do is stronger. In short, we don't need lessons. Not more, please.

I opened a thread on the topic here

Of course the indians are most important, but the environment is not without concern (both in Brazil and in all other places in the world). If one totally destroys the environment the place will be uninhabitable for all people.

Jesus! I forgot about that.

It is pretty obvious that when a gringo writes something, then it matters. These Europeans still treat us, Latin Americans, as third world savages.

Carch wrote: Since the Amerind are seeking support abroad, FUNAI obviously doesn´t do enough for

them.

Don't you read in detail the links you yourself post?

"FUNAI, the government’s Indian affairs department, will increase the size of the Tanaru Indigenous Territory where he lives,

after discovering he has made small gardens and hunting camps outside the area legally set aside to protect him. This move

will help ensure that 'the man in the hole' will remain isolated, as is his clear wish, and is in line with FUNAI’s policy of not

making contact with uncontacted Indians unless their lives are under threat."

  http://www.survival-international.org/news.php?id=2040 - Land for Last Survivor of Unknown Amazon Tribe

and opinion.And still they don´t do enough in all cases since indigenous peolples still have to go on seeking

international support, as in the case of the Xingu river dam.

Familiarize yourself with the works of the Villas Boas brothers in the early 20th century and the actual history of

FUNAI before making such unsubstantiated statements. Long before any European ever gave thought to the

Amazonian Amerind and the pressures of modernization, Brazilian protective legislation was "on the books

so to speak.

Or perhaps you are interested in protecting infanticide as a cultural right among the "indigenous peoples"?

http://vozpelavida-midia.blogspot.com/ - http://vozpelavida-midia.blogspot.com/

Ecology polemicists are "using" the Amerind for their own debates, an abuse no less egregious than any you

yourself impose onto the past of the Americas. In a way, you seek to perpetuate the myth of "helpless

aborigines" and contradict this very valid statement by Professor Hahner on Brazil:

Today we have not just histories of Indians, but Indian histories, as some Indian groups

have gradually overcome their longstanding marginalization from Portuguese literacy.

Certainly the supposition that modern indigenous South Americans embody archetypes

of changeless culture--an idea still found in popular and semi-scholarly literature--should

no longer be accepted. Brazil's indigenes cannot be considered people outside of time,

or people without history.