A Mounting Crisis for Brazil's Indigenous Groups

This is not good:

The year 2007 was particularly violent for indigenous people in Brazil, with 76 murders, an increase of 63 per cent over 2006, the Missionary Council for Indigenous People said Monday. The report from the group linked to the Catholic Church said the increase is mainly due to the sharp rise in violence against indigenous people in the southern state of Mato Grosso do Sul, where there were 48 murders in 2007, almost 150 per cent more than the previous year.

[...] 'The Cimi still considers that the main reason for the increase
in violence is the confinement to which the indigenous peoples of the state (Mato Grosso do Sul) are constrained, particularly those of the Guarani (groups),' the report said. 'That is proved by the fact that, of the 48 murders in the state, 14 happened in Dourados, where there is a higher concentration of indigenous people per hectare.'

The treatment of indigenous peoples in Brazil is already awful, and has been for a long time. As in the United States, many groups have been forced onto reservations far smaller than their traditoinal landholdings, only far more recently than in the U.S. (the report mentions how Guaraní groups lived on 3 million hectares of land in the mid-20th century, yet are now confined to 40,000 hectares, a loss of 2.6 million hectares in only 50 years).

There are many reasons for this: ever since the 1950s, presidents have pushed for growth (industrial and agricultural) without considering or caring about the effects this would have on indigenous peoples, and Brazil's bursting population has increased demand for agricultural production; the relative failure of the government to adequately set up a strong governmental office that could effectively protect indigenous land and rights in the "backwater" parts of the country, like Mato Grosso (though given the history of the BIA in the U.S., I'm not sure such offices are always helpful, but it may help); and the pervasive belief throughout society that Brazil doesn't really have any more "Indians," or if it does, they aren't "real" Indians because they do things like wear blue jeans (I'm not making this up - see this book for a good modern analysis and documentation of this phenomenon) leading to a complete unawareness and apathy towards the indigenous peoples' plight in Brazil.

These factors all probably have a role in the increase in indigenous people's deaths last year. Hopefully, the government and human rights groups, as well as the indigneous groups themselves, will be able to reduce this and combat it and (although this is idealism on my part) make society both nationally and internationally more aware of the problems they are facing today. Still, this is bad, all around.