Decree 1775 was signed into Brazilian law by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso on January 8, 1996. [1] The decree changed the steps FUNAI was required to follow to demarcate indigenous lands, effectively making the process more complicated and allowing for more interference from commercial interests. [2] [3] Individuals or companies were allowed from the beginning of the demarcation process until 90 days after FUNAI issued their report to submit an appeal showing that the contested lands do not meet the qualifications of indigenous lands as stated in the constitution. [1] The decree also placed the final decision in the hands of the Minister of Justice, which left the fate of indigenous lands vulnerable to various political ideologies. [2] The government claimed that allowing people to contest indigenous lands during the demarcation process would prevent any future challenges of completed lands on the basis of unconstitutionality. [1] The decree was widely contested as a violation of indigenous rights, earning the nickname of the "Genocide Decree," due to the power it gave to commercial interests to exploit Indian lands. [4] By April 1996, FUNAI had received over 500 appeals for over 40 indigenous territories that were in the process of being demarcated. [1] [5] FUNAI followed procedure and submitted its official opinion to the Ministry of Justice, rejecting the appeals that were brought against the indigenous lands. [1] [5] Justice Nelson Jobim sided with FUNAI on all except eight territories, ordering further investigation. [6]
The Awá are an Indigenous people of Brazil living in the Amazon rain forest. There are approximately 350 members, and 100 of them have no contact with the outside world. They are considered highly endangered because of conflicts with logging interests in their territory.
Indigenous peoples once comprised an estimated 2000 tribes and nations inhabiting what is now the country of Brazil, before European contact around 1500.
The Fundação Nacional dos Povos Indígenas or FUNAI is a Brazilian governmental protection agency for Amerindian interests and their culture.
Uncontacted peoples are groups of indigenous peoples living without sustained contact with neighbouring communities and the world community. Groups who decide to remain uncontacted are referred to as indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation. Legal protections make estimating the total number of uncontacted peoples challenging, but estimates from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in the UN and the non-profit group Survival International point to between 100 and 200 uncontacted peoples numbering up to 10,000 individuals total. A majority of uncontacted peoples live in South America, particularly northern Brazil, where the Brazilian government and National Geographic estimate between 77 and 84 tribes reside.
Indigenous land rights are the rights of Indigenous peoples to land and natural resources therein, either individually or collectively, mostly in colonised countries. Land and resource-related rights are of fundamental importance to Indigenous peoples for a range of reasons, including: the religious significance of the land, self-determination, identity, and economic factors. Land is a major economic asset, and in some Indigenous societies, using natural resources of land and sea form the basis of their household economy, so the demand for ownership derives from the need to ensure their access to these resources. Land can also be an important instrument of inheritance or a symbol of social status. In many Indigenous societies, such as among the many Aboriginal Australian peoples, the land is an essential part of their spirituality and belief systems.
Mércio Pereira Gomes is a Brazilian anthropologist who presently teaches at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Florida, in 1977, under the supervision of Charles Wagley, who at that time was considered the foremost Brazilianist in the United States and had done extensive fieldwork in Brazil. His dissertation was about the Tenetehara Indians of northern Brazil and in it Gomes expounded how this Indigenous people had managed to survive almost 400 years of relations with Western society. Years later, Gomes published his first book called Os índios e o Brasil, where he hailed the survival of Brazilian Indians as the most important news in the recent history of inter-ethnic relations in that country. This book was later translated into English by the University of Florida Presses (2000) with the title The Indians and Brazil. Other books by Gomes are O Índio na História, Antropologia, Antropologia Hiperdialética, and a new, expanded version of Os índios e o Brasil.
A quilombola is an Afro-Brazilian resident of quilombo settlements first established by escaped slaves in Brazil. They are the descendants of Afro-Brazilian slaves who escaped from slave plantations that existed in Brazil until abolition in 1888. The most famous quilombola was Zumbi and the most famous quilombo was Palmares. Many quilombolas live in poverty.
The right to development is a human right that recognizes every human right for constant improvement of well-being.
Indigenism can refer to several different ideologies that seek to promote the interests of indigenous peoples. The term is used differently by various scholars and activists, and can be used purely descriptively or carry political connotations.
General elections were held in Brazil on 4 October 1998 to elect the President, National Congress and state governorships. If no candidate in the presidential election received more than 50% of the vote in the first round, a second-round runoff would have been held on 25 October. The election saw voting machines used for the first time in Brazilian history.
In Brazil, an indigenous territory or indigenous land is an area inhabited and exclusively possessed by indigenous people. Article 231 of the Brazilian Constitution recognises the inalienable right of indigenous peoples to lands they "traditionally occupy" and automatically confers them permanent possession of these lands. In practice, however, a multi-stage demarcation process is required for a TI to gain full protection, and this has often entailed protracted legal battles. Even after demarcation, TIs are frequently subject to illegal invasions by settlers and mining and logging companies.
The genocide of indigenous peoples in Brazil began with the Portuguese colonization of the Americas, when Pedro Álvares Cabral made landfall in what is now the country of Brazil in 1500. This started the process that led to the depopulation of the indigenous peoples in Brazil, because of disease and violent treatment by Portuguese settlers, and their gradual replacement with colonists from Europe and enslaved peoples from Africa. This process has been described as a genocide, and continues into the modern era with the ongoing destruction of indigenous peoples of the Amazonian region.
Indigenous peoples in Bolivia, or Native Bolivians, are Bolivian people who are of indigenous ancestry. They constitute anywhere from 40 to 70% of Bolivia's population of 11,306,341, depending on different estimates, and belong to 36 recognized ethnic groups. Aymara and Quechua are the largest groups. The geography of Bolivia includes the Andes, the Gran Chaco, and the Amazon Rainforest.
Events in the year 1996 in Brazil.
PEC 215 is a proposed constitutional amendment to the constitution of Brazil.
Puranga Conquista Sustainable Development Reserve is a sustainable development reserve (RDS) in the state of Amazonas, Brazil. It protects an area of Amazon rainforest on the left bank of the Rio Negro near Manaus. The reserve was carved out of the Rio Negro State Park South Section after a lengthy struggle by the occupants of the area who had lived there for years before the state park was created.
The Sawré Muybu Indigenous Territory, also called the Daje Kapap Eipi, is an indigenous territory of Munduruku people in the state of Pará, Brazil. It includes land that is sacred to the Mundurukus. Issuance of the document that delimits the territory was delayed until April 2016 because of the problems recognition would create with the proposed São Luiz do Tapajós Dam, which would flood part of the area. As of November 2016 the territory had still not been formally created by decree.
The Parakanã people are a group of about 1,300 people speaking a Tupi-Guarani language who are indigenous to a small region in Brazil between Pacajá and Tocantins. They practice slash-and-burn agriculture, with a small number of crops. Their staple crop is bitter manioc. Like other Amerindians in the region, they hunt large mammals.
The Ministry of Indigenous People, or Ministry of Native People, is a cabinet-level federal ministry in Brazil. The ministry was established on 11 January 2023 under the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to advance and protect the interests of the Indigenous people of Brazil.
Nabhan Garcia is a Brazilian politician and farmer, who was the Secretary of Land Affairs in the government of President Jair Bolsonaro, in addition to being appointed as president of the Rural Democratic Union.