In 1979, SIL's agreement was officially terminated by the Mexican government after critiques from anthropologists regarding the combination of education and missionary activities in indigenous communities, though SIL continued to be active in that country. At a conference of the Inter-American Indian Institute in Mérida, Yucatán, in November 1980, delegates denounced the Summer Institute of Linguistics, charging that it was using a scientific name to conceal its Protestant agenda and an alleged capitalist view that was alien to indigenous traditions.
Some linguists and anthropologists have criticized SIL's focus on language description, language development, Bible translation, and missionary activities as an effort to change indigenous cultures, which exacerbates the problems that cause language endangerment and language death. [57] Linguists have argued that the missionary focus of SIL makes relations with academic linguists and their reliance on SIL software and knowledge infrastructure problematic in that respective goals, while often overlapping, also sometimes diverge considerably.
SIL does not consider efforts to change cultural patterns a form of cultural destruction and points out that all their work is based on the voluntary participation of indigenous peoples. In the SIL view, ethnocide is not a valid concept and it would lead to pessimism to characterize culture change resulting from the inevitable progress of civilization as ethnocide. SIL sees itself as actively protecting endangered languages by promoting them within the speech community and providing mother-tongue literacy training. [62] Additionally, their expanded interest in preserving threatened languages has resulted in the creation of a Language and Culture Documentation Services Unit. [16]
Accusations of ethnocide, forced displacement and biopiracy against indigenous peoples in Ecuador
SIL has been accused of ethnocide against the Waorani people in Ecuador and of colluding with oil companies to dispossess the Waorani people of their territory for oil exploration and exploitation. "The violent process of forced displacement, acculturation, ethnocide, and the spread of diseases, imposed by SIL under the shadow of oil interests, is possibly one of the most profound and dramatic changes that the Waorani people have experienced in their history." [63]
SIL missionaries first arrived in Ecuador in 1952 with the objective of evangelizing the Waorani indigenous people of the Ecuadorian Amazon, who had remained in voluntary isolation until then. [64] In 1955, they launched Operation Auca to force contact with the Waorani, with the support of oil companies willing to expand exploration [65] , most notably Royal Dutch Shell and Texaco. On January 6, 1956, a group of Waorani killed five US missionaries of Operation Auca in Playa Palma within Waorani territory, where they had landed and established a temporary base. In 1957, Rachel Saint, whose brother (Nate Saint) was killed in the January 1956 attack, embarked on a tour of the United States together with Dayuma, one of the first contacted Waorani persons, appearing with Billy Graham at Madison Square Garden and on Ralph Edwards' television show This Is Your Life , thus turning the conversion of the Waoranis into a cause célèbre in the United States, increasing donations and support for evangelism efforts in Ecuador. [66]
Subsequently, presence and activity of SIL grew in Ecuador and, in 1968, SIL signed a formal agreement with the Ecuadorian Government to "pacify the savages" and establishing a 1,600 km² "protectorate" in Limoncocha and Tiweno, covering the western part of Waorani territory [67] . It aimed at concentrating and evangelizing the Waorani population, which "triggered profound changes: forced displacement, loss of territory, and a significant decline in their population due to disease." [67] By 1972, most Waorani had been concentrated in Tiweno to be converted, with the groups from the lower Cononaco river, who lived near the Yasuní and Nashiño rivers (nampaweiris, waneiris, baiwairis, kempereiris) remaining. [68]
The Waorani population before the 1950s contact was estimated at at least 600 persons, but contact with the SIL missionaries, oil workers, loggers and other indigenous peoples introduced diseases like influenza, tuberculosis, malaria, and polio, which were deadly for the until then isolated Waorani. [68] Waorani accounts indicate that those remaining in their territory believed it was the SIL missionaries who "poisoned the chicha" and that "God is bad because he let [them] die". [68] In 1969, "a deadly polio epidemic hit the missionary compound [...] immediately following the arrival of the third Waorani group, killing 16 and permanently handicapping many more; several authors argue that SIL was directly responsible for this outbreak due to inadequate vaccinations and sanitation while at the same time concentrating a large population in such a small area." [69] Records indicate that approximately 525 Waoranis were concentrated in the SIL "protectorate", over 80% of their pre-contact population, "confined to a small area, living sedentary, missionary dependent lives." [69] [70]
Resistance to evangelism by SIL missionaries before 1968 and then to concentration in the "protectorate" was constant, with violent conflict erupting between different groups of the Waorani, attacks against oil workers and against persons of other indigenous peoples living in the area. [71] In 1968, the Waorani leader Tagae and other families separated refused to be displaced to the missionary settlement, and have since lived in voluntary isolation. Today, they are referred to as the Tagaeri, an indigenous group living in voluntary isolation. In 1972 "Waorani leaders like Wiñame and Dabo rebelled and founded new settlements in places like Dayuno." [67]
Facing a decrease in population in the "protectorate" due to death of flight, in 1976, the SIL missionaries called the missionary anthropologist James Yost to "explain the reasons for the failed reduction. Yost recommended dispersing the groups (some clans had already become enemies and left the reserve). He also suggested SIL's withdrawal from Tiweno 'so that the Waorani can decide their own destiny'", [68] admitting in 1978 that "if the Waorani were to solve their own problems and remain independent of SIL, they would need to face their problems alone." [72] SIL would then progressively reduce its presence in the "protectorate".
However, the Ecuadorian Government had declared the Waorani territory as vacant and started leasing it to oil companies, [73] in particular Texaco, and handed property right to "colonizers" [70] under the 1977 Law on Colonization of the Amazon Region, causing further conflicts. Faced with dispossession, many Waorani men turned to working for the oil companies or leaving their territory entirely. "By the end of 1979, James Yost counted more than seventy men [in the "protectorate"] (sixty percent of the total) who had worked for oil companies at least once, compared with thirty-three a year earlier and fewer than ten before 1977. Thirteen single girls were working as domestic servants in cities." [74]
By the 1980s, SIL activities in Ecuador, not only in the Amazon, were a matter of national concern, with indigenous leaders calling for their expulsion from the country. In May 1981, Blanca Chancoso, leader of the Confederación de Pueblos de la Nacionalidad Kichwa del Ecuador (Ecuarunari) stated that "for a long time we have been denouncing these facts and the damage [SIL] have caused to our indigenous communities throughout the country" [75] , and demanded they be expelled from Ecuador. The left-wing president of Ecuador of the time Jaime Roldós Aguilera expelled SIL by Decree 1159 of May 22, 1981, [76] among mounting allegations of espionage in favour of oil companies [68] and of SIL's colaboration with the CIA in Latin America. [77] [78] Reacting to the expulsion, in November 1981, local activists stated to the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) that "from its inception in 1952, the Institute's activities have been linked to those of oil companies, which used SIL's policies to confine the indigenous peoples of the Amazon to a tenth of their original territory. Its educational work has had a profound impact on the way of life of the contacted groups, resulting in the disintegration of the indigenous worldview and a process of forced assimilation into mainstream society, which has led to the impoverishment of a large number of indigenous people. Recently, SIL has attempted to expand its reach to other groups living on the coast and in the highlands." [76]
In 1986, SIL unsuccesfully tried to renegotiate its entry into the country. Nevertheless, some SIL missionaries returned to Ecuador and their influence continued, specially that of Rachel Saint, who is said to have controlled access to Tiweno, allegedly barring anybody who was not a member of SIL, up until her death in 1994. [68]
SIL has also been accused of biopiracy of Waorani blood in collusion with the Ecuadorian Government and the oil company Maxus. [79] "In 2012, the Waorani nationality, known as Nacionalidad Waorani del Ecuador (NAWE), brought to the attention the use of genetic samples to the government, to which the natives state that the samples were taken from the community without their consent." [80] Reportedly, the collection of the samples took place mostly between 1990 and 1991. In 2014, René Ramírez, the head of the Ecuadorian Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology stated that “it was demonstrated that the Coriell Institute has in its stores samples (from the Waorani) and that it sells genetic material from the Waorani people.” [81] He further explained that explained that "Harvard University was among the purchasers. Specifically, [a 2012 report] found that since 1994, seven cell cultures and 36 blood samples were distributed to eight different countries. However, scientific publications based on the samples have stated that the samples used for their own studies date back to the 1970s, [82] when SIL was in charge of the "protectorate" and was conducting the vaccination campaigns. Allegedly, it was "during vaccinations initiated by the SIL in 1979 by Jonathan E. Kaplan, James W. Larrick, and James Yost, that the first blood samples were taken from Waorani people" [79] [83] . The presence of SIL translators during the collection of Waorani blood has been ratified by the alleged Waorani victims themselves. [80]
