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Deep in the protected forests of the Xingu region in Brazil, small villages belonging to the Kayapo Tribe remain intact and architecturally unchanged. All the homes in a typical Kayapo village are arranged in a perfect circle, along the inside perimeter of the dense jungle. In the middle of the cleared circular area stands the village parliament. On one end of the village is the Men's hut. Emerging from the doorway of a majestic, thatch roofed structure called a long-house, a Kayapo chieftain, bedecked in full head-dress, face and body paint, parrot feathers secured to his elbows, is followed outside by twenty warriors, dressed in similar array. Their mission for the day includes conducting house-to-house ceremonies in the village, ceremonies to chase away evil spirits. Making the rounds is easy: no traffic lights, one way streets, cul-de-sacs, or dead end streets. At the end of the day, after an evening meal of manioc, beans, fish and rice, an elder sitting around the fire looks up and points to the stars, remarking to the children that the lights in the sky are the distant campfires of their ancestors. The jungle surrounding the Kayapo villages are protected regions of Brazil. It is the Kayapos who protect this lush green portion of the Amazon rainforest. Without them, the forest would resemble the lands just beyond the borders of Xingu territory...vast stretches of red desert, stripped bare by cattle grazing. Originally, these areas of the jungle were cut down and used for farm land, using slash and burn methods of clearing. Heavy tropical rains wash away the nutrients in the soil after a few years. The farmers move on to burn more forest and cattle ranchers come in to occupy the abandoned fields with their livestock. When the cattle get done with it, there's nothing left but dust. No regrowth can occur on the nutrient depleted, overgrazed land. More and more areas of rainforest are being transformed into ugly barren deserts. In a single day in 1988, scientists recorded 6,000 man-made fires burning in the rain forest. Tribal peoples are the keepers of the forest. They know that without the trees and the oxygen they provide, everything on the earth will perish. In spite of this, the rainforest is continuing to be exploited for its vast resources by commercial interests looking only at short term gains. That is the reason why the original population of 6 million tribal peoples in the Amazon Basin has been reduced to a mere 200,000. The rest were massacred. Many died of gunfire. Others died in more insidious ways. Airplanes, covertly flying over tribal villages, make supply drops that include blankets inoculated with influenza virus. Having no natural immunity to these viruses, millions perished. The first recorded contact with the Kayapos of South America was made in 1965. For over two decades, their land has been invaded by cattle ranchers, miners and loggers, ravaging the land and the forests. It has been reported that approximately sixty acres of rainforest per minute are being lost in the Amazon basin every day. Logging companies, for example, have to slash and burn an entire acre of forest to obtain a single hardwood tree. In addition, 1.7 million acres of rain forest in Peru have been destroyed through the cultivation of coca leaves to meet the demands of a world market for cocaine. Deforestation in the rich Amazon rainforest, caused by a variety of industries, has resulted in environmental devastation with global consequences. In reference to dying rainforests, Sting, recording star, author and spokesman for the rainforest and its indigenous people, is quoted in his book, JUNGLE STORIES: THE FIGHT FOR THE AMAZON, "It is not alarmist to say that the Amazon could be a desert in a matter of decades. There was once a similar rainforest in North Africa. Today, we know the area as the Sahara. We people of other nations are not remote and uninvolved witnesses. We share the blame and we must find a way to heal the rainforest." The Kayapo have been fighting to protect their lands, forests and traditions, both physically and politically. A fight that began with war clubs has evolved into a war with words. The chief of the Kayapo Nation, having learned the language of politicians, has been at one point, a government advisor on indigenous affairs for the Amazon. He taught himself how to operate a video camera and taped the destruction caused by foreign exploitation. He went to the capital to show the government how his environment was being destroyed. "Since the beginning of the world, we Indians began to love the forest and the land. Because of this, we have learned how to preserve it. We are trying to protect our lands, our traditions, our knowledge. We defend not to destroy. If there was no forest, there would be no Indians... I had to come out (of the forest), to tell you that by destroying our environment, you are destroying your own. If I didn't come out, you wouldn't know what you're doing," said the chief. And indeed, our environment is being affected. If the destruction doesn't end, indigenous tribes will lose their homeland and we will all lose the atmospheric benefits of the rainforest. The rainforests are like the "lungs" of the planet. The carbon dioxide/oxygen exchange provided by our trees is crucial to a healthy planet. In addition, it is alleged that rainforests help to regulate weather conditions. Rainforest vegetation acts as a watershed, absorbing moisture and releasing it slowly. When the vegetation is gone, like in India and Nepal, catastrophic flooding is the result. We would also be losing the rest of our "natural pharmacy" of plants, many of which have curative powers still unknown to western civilization. It has been reported that we are already losing 100 species of plant and animal life per day. Twenty-five percent of all prescription medicines are derived from plant and animal compounds from the rainforest. Fourteen hundred of them have cancer fighting properties. Others are used to treat high blood pressure, Hodgkin's disease and childhood leukemia, to name a few. Throughout Brazil, environmentalists as well as Indian groups are working to discourage deforestation by developing markets for natural by-products from the rainforest. In the last few years products containing Brazilian nuts, roots, fruits, oils, pigments and essences have been cultivated and can be harvested regularly. The Kayapo have created a scientific reserve, and set up small factories for the creation of hair conditioning oil from the harvest of Brazil nuts, as one of their first products for export. In addition, they have established a school for the preservation of Kayapo culture. The visionary leader of the Kayapo, Paiakan, stands at the center of incredible change and is teaching his people an alternative to leasing their mineral and tree cutting rights, while helping to save the forest and their way of life. With assistance, the Kayapo could "help the world turn back to its roots, (and) to those whose lives depend on working with nature and not against it." In 1987 a historic visit was made to the Kayapo reservation by Red Crow, the chief of the Dakota Sioux. Unlike Euro-american anthropologists who maintained that all "Indians" came across the Bering Strait, the Sioux believe that they originated in South America and went north. This visit to the Xingu jungle was the beginning of restoring connections between the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Beyond the similarities in customs and beliefs, a comparison was made between homesteading policies of the U.S. in the Dakotas in 1850 and those of the modern Brazilian government. Both governments warranted that their citizens could homestead anywhere there weren't any "Indians". The results were the same. Settlers in the Dakotas killed off the indigenous tribes to get "their" homesteads. Ranchers in S. America had hunting parties for them. Red Crow was quoted as saying, "...homesteading is just land theft." In both cases, it was murder as well. As a delegate of the International Treaty Council, Red Crow also made suggestions to the Kayapo chieftains about what to ask of the newly formed democratic government in Brazil. The first thing was "...the right to religion, which is connected with the recognition of sacred lands. Moreover, the (new) constitution must forbid any government to decrease the Indian lands. If not, you'll lose everything, bit by bit." From the viewpoint of indigenous people and "keepers of the forest", we are told, "As Indians on this continent, we have thousand-year-old teachings that tell us that all life is connected - a spiderweb of life from the insects all the way to the eagles in the sky. And what we do to one strand, we do to the whole spiderweb. It's this connection that the world has to begin to learn and to see in order to live right on earth." Until recently, the indigenous tribal peoples were the only ones protecting the forests. The forests protect and sustain us all and "...We must all become keepers of the forest." |