Country: Brazil

Group: Makuxi

Date: 4/21/2020

Group: Leilani Alva (lead), Giselle Chavez Lopez, Johanna McCombs

Content Warning: violence, death

Approximate Time Period: 1700-1800, 1988-2008

Brazilian Makuxi have been in sporadic contact with European colonists, ranchers and missionaries since the 18th century (Hemming 1990, Myers 1993).  In 1988, cattle ranchers and gold miners moved into the Makuxi’s territory and have lethally attacked Makushi (Moore and Lemos, 1999).  After stalled efforts to have their land officially recognized and demarcated, the Makuxi set up road blocks to cut off the supplies for illegal gold prospectors.  As punishment, police destroyed their villages.  At least 20 Makushi have died in land rights conflicts since 1990 (Minority Rights, n.d.). In 2008, a small group of Makuxi was attacked by gunmen hired by a local businessman in Roraima,Brazil (Watson, n.d.).

Sources

  1. Hemming, J. (1990). Roraima: Brazil’s northernmost frontier. ISA Research Papers, (20).
  2. Minority Rights (n.d.). Makuxi and Wapishana. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/makuxi-and-wapixana/
  3. Moore, S. G., & Lemos, M. C. (1999). Indigenous Policy in Brazil: The Development of Decree 1775 and the Proposed Raposa/Serra do Sol Reserve, Roraima, Brazil. Human Rights Quarterly, 21(2), 444-463.
  4. Myers, Iris (1993). The Makushi of the Guiana-Brazilian Frontier in 1944: A Study of Culture Contact. Anthropologica. 80: 3-99.
  5. Penglase, B. (1994). Brazil: Violence Against the Macuxi and Wapixana Indians in Raposa Serra Do Sol and Northern Roraima from 1988 to 1994 (Vol. 6, No. 7). Human Rights Watch/Americas.
  6. Watson, Fiona (n.d.). The Indians of Raposa-Serra do Sol. Survival International. https://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/raposa