Indigenous Land With the Most Illegal Gold Mines in Brazil Has Bad Living Conditions (Portuguese)

This story excerpt was translated from Portuguese. To read the original story in full, visit Folha de S.Paulo.

Kayapó leaders seek ways to eliminate predatory activity, which prevents fishing and brings diseases to the communities.

João Kayapó, 53, is the new chief of the Turedjam village, a community surrounded by craters from illegal gold mining. The inauguration had a stage, red carpet, national anthem and the words of an indigenous pastor from the Assembly of God.

The party was grandiose. The village of 457 Kayapós Mebengôkres received more than 2,000 guests. They were indigenous people from 48 other villages, inside and outside the Kayapó TI (Indigenous Land), in the south of Pará.

Men and women painted themselves for the inauguration of the new cacique. Groups representing the invited villages sang and danced to welcome him—the men with a guttural voice, the women with a shrillness that approximates shouting, if it were not music. The cadenced steps and alternating groups filled the central courtyard of Turedjam.