In Brazil, a Guarani Indian was beaten by armed men at a cattle breeder’s market a few weeks ago. The attack occurred just hours after he and his tribe regained possession of the lands from which they had been exiled thirty years before.
This is not an isolated incident. August 9 commemorates the eleventh International Day of the World’s Indigenous People. According to rights groups, however, while more attention is being paid to this issue, tribes like the Guarani Indians continue to suffer grave abuses.
According to the United Nations (UN), indigenous and aboriginal populations are still present all over the world. Such peoples and homelands include the Mayas of Guatemala, the Inuits and Aleutians of the Polar regions, and the Maori of New Zealand.
In a resolution passed in December 1994, the UN General Assembly established a day in their honor to be celebrated every year during the Decade of the World’s Indigenous People (1995-2004). With the end of the decade imminent and many abuses still continuing, the UN proclaimed a second decade in December 2004, simultaneously extending the day of recognition.
According to Survival International, a non-profit organization that supports the rights of tribal peoples worldwide, despite such symbolic measures, violations against indigenous peoples have not decreased.
Threatened Peoples
The biggest problem facing indigenous people is the loss of their land. Although their land ownership rights are recognized in international law, often their lands are invaded, by settlers, businesses or developers. Once they are evicted from their land, indigenous tribes face problems such as disease and homelessness.
In extreme cases, the competition over land results in indigenous people being beaten, imprisoned, tortured or even killed as they are forced to leave their territory. For example, in Brazil, two Truka Indians were killed by a “death squad,” and an elderly Guanjajara leader was assassinated by soybean farm hands who had invaded Indian lands.
In the African country of Botswana, several Bushmen tribes were expelled from the Kalahari reserve by the local government. As a result, they are no longer authorized to hunt in the area, despite their dependence on their catches to feed their families. When seven Gana and Gwi Bushmen returned to their land to look for food, they were caught and tortured by Plant and Animal Department officials for having hunted illegally. “They hit us hard. I thought they wanted to kill us,” says one of the victims, Letshwao Nagayame. “The officials … hit me and kicked me repeatedly while a man crushed my fingers on the ground.”
Despite such incidents, considering the progress Survival has made in protecting indigenous people’s rights, there is reason to believe that a bright future is possible. The organization has, for instance, persuaded governments to recognize tribal land ownership in Colombia, and forced companies to pull out of harmful projects on tribal land in Siberia. More generally, they have helped achieve better recognition of tribal peoples’ situations and their rights around the world.