AN APPEAL FOR SUPPORT
by Terry Turner

The Kayapo, an indigenous people who inhabit extensive territories on both sides of the Middle Xingu River, have called a meeting of all indigenous peoples of the valley of the Xingu, to be held in November at Piaraçu, one of their villages located on the Xingu near the ferry crossing of Brazil Route 080. The purpose of the meeting is to coordinate a united response by all the indigenous nations of the Xingu valley to several developments that threaten the survival of the riverine ecosystem and all the people, indigenous and non-indigenous, who depend on it. These developments include:

1) the attempt by the Federal government of Brazil to revive plans for a series of hydroelectric dams to be built on the Xingu and its tributary, the Irirí. These dams would flood large areas of territory used by the inhabitants of the region, damage forest ecosystems and their fauna, destroy fisheries, and provide no compensatory economic benefits to the indigenous and non-indigenous populations of the valley. The first of these dams is to be built at Belo Monte, near Altamira on the Lower Xingu. This dam scheme, initially proposed in 1988, was the object of the famous Altamira rally of “the Peoples of the Xingu” led by the Kayapo in 1989, which is generally credited with having blocked its construction at the time.

2) the growing pollution of the Xingu headwaters and its tributaries by cattle ranchers and soy bean farmers, who have occupied lands immediately adjoining the National Park of the Xingu. The peoples of the Upper Xingu who live within the Park have launched a project to combat this problem, with the support of the Instituto SocioAmbiental, a leading Brazilian NGO;

3) the illegal invasion and sale of large areas of land on the east bank of the Middle Xingu, in the area called Kapôtnhinore, which the Kayapo regard as an integral part of their territory. This is the last area on either bank of the Middle Xingu that remains
undemarcated. Within the past two years it has been illegally invaded by land speculators and ranchers. One of these invaders has already cleared a large tract extending right up to the river bank has threatened to kill any Indians who approach ”his” land, and has fired upon Indians attempting to pass by on the river. The Kayapo have therefore been forced to abandon travel downriver from their villages of Mentuktire, Kapôt and Piaraçu.

Tensions among some of the fifteen Kayapo villages and between the Kayapo and some of the other indigenous peoples of the Xingu Park have hitherto prevented any combined response to these threats. The purpose of the proposed meeting at Piaraçu is to overcome these divisions by uniting in struggle against all the threats to the Xingú and its peoples. Opposition to the Xingu dams has been growing among the non-indigenous people of the Lower Xingu in recent years, represented by The Foundation for Life, Production and Preservation (Fundação Viver, Produzir e Preservar), the Movement for the Development of the Trans-Amazonica and the Xingú, and the newly organized Women’s Movement of the Xingú, all centered in the town of Altamira and its adjoining region. Leaders of these movements have thus far sought in vain to promote collaboration by indigenous groups, especially the Kayapo, in efforts to reconstitute the coalition that organized the victorious Kayapo-led Altamira rally of 1989. The Kayapo call for the Piaraçu meeting is intended to organize an indigenous coalition that can join with the non-indigenous movements of Altamira in a united movement to save the Xingú ecosystem as a whole with all its peoples. The Kayapo argue that the separate existing local campaigns—the Upper Xinguano fight against the pollution of the headwaters, the Kayapo fight to save the east bank of the Middle Xingu from illegal invasions by river- polluting soy farmers, and the fight of the Altamira movements against the hydroelectric dams—are really interconnected aspects of a single great struggle to save the Xingú and all its peoples from the effects of destructive development. All engaged in these struggles, they assert, should therefore support one another and jointly appeal for external support. The Kayapo envision this united movement as culminating in a joint rally at Altamira in November or December of this year! , conceived as a repetition of the great Altamira rally of 1989, to confront and defeat the government’s attempt to revive its plan for the damming of the Xingu.

For the Piaraçu meeting, the Kayapo plan to invite about 100 indigenous representatives from their own communities, the peoples of the Xingu Park, and the indigenous groups of the lower Xingu. Some of these can come by bus or by river, but many will have to be flown by air taxi, especially if the interdiction of the Middle Xingu by trigger-happy ranchers cannot be overcome in time. Expenses for travel, food and the construction of new dormitories at Piaraçu are expected to run close to $10,000.00 US. Contributions of any size would be greatly appreciated. The Instituto Raoni, the Kayapo organization that is coordinating the preparations for the meeting, will accept direct deposits to its bank account: Instituto Raoni, Conta corrente 19000-4, Agencia 11779-5, Banco do Brasil, Colider Mato Grosso, Brazil CEP 78500 

Contact for North America and Europe: Terry Turner, Department of Anthropology, Cornell University, Ithaca NY 14853 USA, email <tst3@cornell.edu>, fax xx1 607 255 3747, tel. xx1 607 273 4840. 

Contact for Brazil: Mekaronti, A.E.R. FUNAI, Avenida do Colonizador 192, Colider MT 785000, Brasil, email <francisco-rocha.col@funai.gov.br>, fax 011 55 66 541 2011, tel. 011 66 541 2285, -2011, -1171.