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This literature search received a grade in the middle "A" range.

Many indigenous groups in Brazil have been experiencing a state of turmoil due to the many loggers, miners, settlers, and ranchers that have been invading their land. International environmental and indigenous rights organizations have over the last year played an important role in the defense of indigenous land rights in Brazil, by maintaining consistent pressure on the government of Brazil to honor its constitutional obligation to demarcate and defend indigenous territory (RAN, 1997). My objective in this literature search was to find all of the relevant sources on successful and failed policies towards indigenous peoples in Brazil and to evaluate how well the sources covered the topic.

My search was conducted over a three to four month period, with over thirty hours spent searching for literature in the library. I believe that I have covered the topic fairly well accounting for perhaps 75% of all English speaking sources. I say this because I found many sources located at the University of Illinois at Chicago, but were unobtainable due to the time of the finding. There would not have been ample time to have ordered them through an inter-library loan. For future reference however, the University of Illinois at Chicago seemed to have extensive literature on the subject. Most of the sources found take the perspective of the indigenous people and show the government's responses along with their failures. For this literature search I found four major categories of sources that discuss policies to protect indigenous peoples of Brazil.

The first category contains general textbooks that mention Brazil's situation overall. These were not extremely helpful and were limited in detail. Usually the author briefly mentioned policies and their effectiveness without giving insight to the many years of political battle. However, the book edited by Roosevelt (1994), proved to be a great source of information, giving more insight into the problem. Instead of listing problems that have only been occurring recently, a historical picture has been given beginning from the time of conquest. This proves to be helpful because it is hard to get the full picture of the relationship between the indigenous and the government and what events led up to such policies being made and broken. Graham and Wilson (1990, Chapter 6), focused on expansion in the Amazon Region and policies beginning in the 1960s and leading up to the 1980s. It had a different perspective than the rest of the sources. It took on the perspective that expanding in the Amazon Region would lead to modernization, which would lead to economic expansion (p. 97). It is an economic perspective that gives a different outlook to the invasion, whereas almost all of the other sources found support the indigenous side and look down on any kind of expansion.

The second group of materials found includes ethnographies. Ethnographies should tend to be a good source of policies directed towards the individual group under study and how they are affected by these policies. Reed (1997) devotes two chapters to development in Guarani communities. The problem with this source is that the Guarani live in both Brazil and Paraguay, and a majority of the book focuses on Paraguayan policies. Ramos (1995) is an excellent source on policies affecting the Yanomami. She devotes a chapter to this entitled 'The Age of Gold and Misery' along with an Epilogue that give good information on the involvement of FUNAI, the National Indian Foundation, and policies made to protect the Yanomami. From 1968 to 1991, no less than fifteen proposals for the demarcation of Yanomami lands were drawn up by different groups and organizations (Ramos, 1995).

The third category of materials included specific literature on the topic included specific books and reports. A majority of the sources are in this category, and they do give the greatest amount of detail. A bibliography was found specifically for this topic however, was extremely outdated (Fuerst, 1972). Davis (1988) created an entire book devoted to politics and land rights for all types of indigenous people in Latin America. He devotes a chapter to the Yanomami, which can be backed up with information from two ethnographies found, Chagnon (1992) and Ramos (1995). Another very important reference was NACLA Report on the Americas. Schwartzman, Araujo, and Pankararu (1996) give a detailed report describing the policies and their failure to protect indigenous people in Brazil. Since the 1988 Constitution nullifies private titles on indigenous lands, large landholders and ranchers have manipulated demarcation procedures so that they can maintain their hold on their illegal properties (Schwartzman, Araujo, and Pankararu 1996). In another report, a constitutional decree was ratified that set off many publications. The Decree—Decree #1775, popularly known as the "Genocide Decree" – allowed private interests and local governments to challenge the legality of indigenous land titles (Feferman and Borges, 1996). RAN (1997), Barbic (1996), Schwartzman (1997), and The Ecologist (1996) supported this statement. A final source worth noting due to its importance is a six case study report edited by MacDonald (1985). It has a report on the Shavante people of Brazil and policies that have been made to protect them and those that have failed.

The fourth and final category of materials included journals, newspapers, and websites. The Brazilian Information Bulletin contained a numerous amount of newspaper volumes however, was outdated. In each newspaper there was a section on Indigena Reports. These Indigena Reports, written by the group INDIGENA, gave extensive information on the situation of many indigenous peoples in Brazil. Although the ones that were located were outdated, there must be existing recent reports that can be found. Unfortunately, I have not located these. Williams (1983) proved to be an important source along with Barbic (1996), The Ecologist (1996), and Schwartzman (1997). Schwartzman (1997) is the most extensive account on recent political activity. This information was found on a website, however can be legitimized by his having helped write the NACLA Report on the Americas. The RAN website provided much information on the politics on indigenous people and the rainforest. It stands for the Rainforest Action Network and has many offices located in California and in Brazil. The Economist (1988) and Laurence (1998) give brief indications on policies towards indigenous people and tend to focus more on the rainforest itself.

In conclusion, I found that many of these sources supported one another. I tried to locate as many sources as possible, however I had trouble locating sources from recent years. It seemed as though this topic was covered more extensively during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The most important sources found were the NACLA Report on the Americas (Schwartzman, Araujo, and Pankararu, 1996), the RAN website, which can be legitimized by Schwartzman's participation, the Indigena Reports, Roosevelt (1994), and Williams (1983). The bibliographies in the backs of many of these books were helpful. More information and sources are still to be found, but due to the lack in time to file for inter-library loans, the entire topic has not been covered.

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Bibliography

A=Excellent Source B=Fair Source C=Poor Source

Barbic, S. (1996, March). "Brazil's Genocide Decree." Multinational Monitor, 17, 3, pp. 6-8.

Clawson, D.L. (1997). Latin America and the Caribbean. USA: McGraw-Hill.

Chagnon, N. (1992). Yanomamo: The Last Days of Eden. New York: Harcourt Brace

Cockcroft, J. (1996). Latin America: History, Politics, and U.S. Policy. Chicago, IL:

Nelson Hall Publishers.

Davis, S. (1988). Land Rights and Indigenous Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Cultural

Survival Inc.

Ecologist, The. (1996, January-February). "Brazilian Decree Threatens Indian Lands."

Volume 26, n. 1, pS1.

Economist, The. (1988). "Trees and the Law: Brazil." Volume 346, n.8054, p. 36.

Feferman, J. and Borges, B. (1996, Summer-Fall). "Brazil's Indians on Alert as

Government Hears Final Land Rights Appeals [11 paragraphs]." World Rainforest

Report. Vol XII, No. 2. Retrieved March 12, 1999 from the World Wide Web:

http://www.igc.org/ran/info_center/wrr/wrr_96_10/brazil.html.

Fuerst, R. (1972). Bibliography of the Indigenous Problem and Policy of the Brazilian

Amazon Region (1957-1972). AMAZIND/IWGIA Document. Copenhagen, Geneva.

Graham, L. and Wilson, R. (1990). The Political Economy of Brazil: Public Policies

In an Era of Tradition. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

Indigena:

(1974). "Indigena Report: Riding Over the Indians." Winter, No. 12. Brazilian

Information Bulletin.

(1974) "Indigena Report: Leasing Away Indian Lives." Spring, No. 13. Brazilian

Information Bulletin.

(1974). "Indigena Report: Cattle on Indian Land." Summer, No. 14. Brazilian

Information Bulletin.

(1974). "Indigena Report: Supysua (The Truth): A Documentary Report on the

Conditions of Indian Peoples in Brazil." Fall, No. 15. Brazilian Information Bulletin.

(1974). "The Rape of Indian Territory: Foreign Aid and Investment in the Brazilian Amazon." Fall, No. 15. Brazilian Information Bulletin.

Laurence, W. (1998, July-August). "Fragments of the Forest." Natural History

Volume 107, n. 6, pp. 35-9.

MacDonald, T. (1985). Native Peoples and Economic Development: Six Case Studies

From Latin America. Cambridge, MA: Cultural Survival Inc.

Multinational Monitor. (1997, September). "Amazon Solidarity [7 paragraphs]."

Volume 18, No. 9. [On-Line Newspaper]. Retrieved March 12, 1999 from the World Wide Web: http://www.essential.org/monitor.hyper.mm0997.01.html.

Native-L. (1994, September 4). "Brazil: Prostitution Increases Among Yanomami

Indigenous People [10 paragraphs]." [On-Line newsletter]. Retrieved March 12, 1999 from the World Wide Web: http://nativenet.uthscsa.edu/archive/n1/9409/0149.html.

Rainforest Action Network (RAN). (1997, September). "Brazil Justice Minister

Delays Macuxi Demarcation [7 paragraphs]." [On-Line Update]. Retrieved March 12, 1999 from the World Wide Web: http://www.igc.org/ran/ran_campaigns/brazil/macuxi_update.html.

A. Ramos, A. (1995). Sanuma Memories: Yanomami Ethnography in Times of Crisis.

Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.

B. Reed, R. (1997). Forest Dwellers, Forest Protectors: Indigenous Models for

International Development. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Roosevelt, A. ed. (1994). Amazonian Indians from Prehistory to the Present. Tucson,

AZ: University of Arizona Press.

B. Salzano, F. and Callegari-Jaques, S. (1988). South American Indians: A Case Study

In Evolution. New York: Oxford University Press.

Schwartzman, S. (1997, March 7). "A Sinister Decision [46 paragraphs]."

Rainforest Action Network News. [On-Line]. Retrieved March 12, 1999 from the World Wide Web: http://www.igc.org/ran/ran_campaigns/brazil/fact_raposa.html.

Schwartzman, S., and Araujo, A.V., and Pankararu, P. (1996, March-April). "The

Legal Battle Over Indigenous Land Rights." NACLA Report on the Americas.

B. Shepard, D.J. (1995, May). "Amazon Indians Evicted from Roraima [8 paragraphs]."

Earth Times News. [On-Line newspaper]. Retrieved March 12, 1999 from the

World Wide Web: http://www.txinfinet.com/mader/planeta/0595/0595amaz.html.

Tangley, L. (1998). "More of the Rainforest is Ravaged." U.S. News and World

Report. Volume 124, n. 5, p. 48.

Westlund, M. (1996, November 4). "Brazil Recognizes Land Rights of Panara

Indigenous Group [3 paragraphs]." Rainforest Action Network News. [On-Line].

Retrieved March 12, 1999 from the World Wide Web:

http://www.ran.org/info_center/press_release/panara.html.

Williams, S. (1983, May). "Land Rights and the Manipulation of Identity: Official

Indian Policy in Brazil." Journal of Latin American Studies.

World Watch. (1996, September-October). "Brazil's Genocide Decree." Volume 17,

n.3, pp. 6-8.

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Comments

I really dreaded this project in the beginning, and to tell the truth I was unsure on what to exactly write. I have never done such a project but was glad to have participated because it allowed me to become more familiar with the library and resource material. I became more involved towards the end of the semester which is too bad considering I could have received fairly good references from the University of Illinois at Chicago, but I found those too late. I believe I did fairly good on this project because I did look at the Literature Search page a number of times and tried to follow the examples. I am grateful to that web page, I believe it saved my whole paper. Without it I would be very lost!

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