the Indigenous peoples are as diverse as they are numerous But one thing they all have in common is that they face relentless pressure from outsiders driven by a desire to exploit the natural resources on their lands the Ka’apor have taken matters into their own hands creating an autonomous Indigenous territory that doesn’t require the presence of the state they’ve inspired other Indigenous groups in the region But while the Ka’apor people have succeeded in repelling the “aggressors,” they continue to live under the constant threat of violence while the authorities charged with protecting them do nothing The name Ka’apor means “people of the forest” in their language so the rainforest is core to their very identity the region’s environment and its original inhabitants have suffered the consequences of illegal logging often orchestrated by well-financed and politically connected criminal organizations the forest is like a life-giving relative; to the invaders simply leaving their home means risking their life After leaving their ancestral lands some 150 years ago the Ka’apor embarked on a journey of hundreds of kilometers on foot in an attempt to distance themselves from an expanding settler society pushing deeper into the interior of the former Portuguese colony They eventually settled in what is now one of the last remaining tracts of rainforest in the state of Maranhão Their isolation was only temporary; by the 1900s outsiders were once again encroaching on their territory germs and steel devastated the Indigenous population The government’s Indigenous affairs agency of the time thought it best to “pacify” the Ka’apor by imposing on them the Portuguese language their population had fallen to less than 500 the people and their forest remain under constant threat more than 76% of the original Amazon rainforest in Maranhão has disappeared belongs to the Ka’apor of the Alto Turiaçu Indigenous Territory officially recognized by the government in 1982 the reserve is an island of deep green in a sea of cattle pasture While the Brazilian Amazon has lost about 20% of its original forest cover over the past 50 years in the Alto Turiaçu reserve the figure is less than 10% thanks largely to the actions of the Indigenous inhabitants the Ka’apor had become increasingly concerned about the growing danger of outside influence on their land and culture They also became increasingly skeptical of the federal agency for Indigenous affairs which has historically maintained posts within Indigenous territories throughout Brazil was seen as being complicit in the sale of timber logged illegally within Ka’apor territory things came to a head when the community of Gurupiuna inside the reserve was attacked by loggers the armed invaders descended on the village Frustrated with the government’s inability or unwillingness to protect them the Ka’apor decided to take matters into their own hands They did away with the one-chief system imposed by Funai and revived the traditional council of chiefs consecrating a pact between the leaders of their various communities Decisions would now be taken collectively within a decentralized who asked to remain anonymous due to repeated threats to their safety The council kicked Funai out of the reserve and set up their own education program prioritizing the Ka’apor language over Portuguese they created the Ka’apor Training and Knowledge Center (Jumu’e ha renda Keruhu) an Indigenous-run program to train and educate future leaders while preserving the ways of their ancestors In response to the threat of illegal invasions the council formed the Ka’apor Self-Defense Guard (Ka’a usak ha) companies of Ka’apor warriors who seek out and expel invaders — by force “We kept pushing loggers out but they kept coming back,” the Ka’apor leader told Mongabay So the strategy of setting up “protection areas” was created Previously accustomed to living deep within the forest the Ka’apor had to adapt by moving entire families and communities to the borders of their territory to live in “self-sustaining agroforestry communities.” Built on the site of reclaimed logging camps or access roads these settlements form a string of lookouts and defense posts against any further incursions into their territory the 11th protection area was created in a heavily deforested corner of the Alto Turiaçu reserve Loggers had reportedly been active in the area as recently as two weeks before the Ka’apor took back control While there was fresh evidence of their activity the area is now back in the hands of the people of the forest The strategy is bearing fruit: between 2013 and 2016 the Ka’apor burned 105 trucks and closed 14 logging roads practically halting the advance of the illegal loggers According to data from Global Forest Watch tree cover loss dropped from 2,700 hectares (6,670 acres) in 2018 to 600 hectares (1,480 acres) by 2020 — a decline of nearly 350% This sharp decrease corresponds with an increase in the number of protection areas and the Ka’apor’s expanded monitoring of their territory residents have even observed the return of wildlife in the absence of heavy machinery and the sound of chainsaws five Ka’apor have been killed and many more threatened in what leaders claim are acts of revenge for protecting the land Brazil is still among the most dangerous countries in the world for land defenders With the establishment of each new protection area came an act of reprisal was ambushed and murdered by gunmen in 2015 was stabbed to death in the nearby logging settlement of Betel Jurandir Ka’apor was shot and killed by loggers Mongabay spoke with several Ka’apor who had survived targeted acts of violence A third had been thrown off a fleeing logging truck and was run over by another truck following behind He suffered brain damage and spent weeks recovering but has since returned to his duties with the Self-Defense Guard While setting up the latest protection area a Ka’apor leader and a supporter said they were surrounded and threatened by suspected gunmen in the town of Santa Luzia do Paruá They fled to the civil police station for safety They only made it back to their territory after alerting the Maranhense Society for Human Rights (SMDH) and the Protection Program for Human Rights Defenders (PPDDH) which alerted the State Public Safety Secretariat which arranged a police escort hours later Ka’apor leaders reported that Indigenous people traveling by road outside the Alto Turiaçu reserve were being stopped by unknown men and threatened They suspect the men are looking for Ka’apor leaders four of whom are ostensibly under the protection of the PPDDH threats and violence against Indigenous people go largely unpunished as the perpetrators are often connected to powerful business interests or criminal organizations that often enjoy the protection of corrupt public officials and law enforcement no one has been found guilty of any of the crimes mentioned above police haven’t even opened an investigation the election of Jair Bolsonaro as president meant plans to open up Indigenous territories to resource exploitation now have support at the very highest level of government many of them members of Bolsonaro’s right-wing party or his coalition in Congress are suspected of involvement in illegal activity on Indigenous territory at an entrance to Ka’apor territory near the non-Indigenous settlement of Tancredo Neves in the municipality of Nova Olinda do Maranhão Self-Defense Guards approached a group of loggers the men reportedly named the mayor of the nearby municipality of Araguanã local councilman Bené do Tancredo was said to be found with loggers where he reportedly told the Ka’apor that “everyone works illegally in this town.” the mayor of the nearby town of Centro Novo do Maranhão was arrested for illegal mining and toxic chemical dumping after a Federal Police operation in the region he has reportedly been seen entering the Alto Turiaçu reserve by way of the Gurupi River on hunting expeditions and potentially prospecting for minerals Garimpeiro arrived in a truck with armed gunmen and threatened leaders in the community of Gurupiuna One example of how local corruption goes national is Josimar Maranhãozinho two-time mayor of the neighboring town of Maranhãozinho he was accused of orchestrating an illegal logging operation in Ka’apor territory he’s a federal congressman — albeit one who is currently under investigation after being caught embezzling public funds Mining companies have also continued to advance with four gold exploration requests illegally being made within the limits of the Alto Turiaçu reserve Three of these were submitted by MCT Mineração Ltda a company based in Centro Novo do Maranhão and which is the subject of several ongoing civil suits related to environmental crimes The fourth mining application was made by Vale Vale is notorious for two catastrophic collapses of mine tailings dams in the state of Minas Gerais in 2015 and 2019 All four mining requests are currently pending Mining in Indigenous territories is banned under Brazil’s Constitution but a bill introduced into Congress by Bolsonaro state and federal governments refuse to recognize any initiatives being taken by the Ka’apor within their own territory Mongabay reached out to Funai as well as both the federal and state secretariats of public safety requesting comment on recent reports of threats being made against the Ka’apor and any information regarding ongoing investigations into the above-mentioned crimes We received no response from any of those contacted as of the time this article was published More than three years into the Bolsonaro presidency marked by its anti-Indigenous rhetoric and with no change in the long-standing inaction of the authorities the culture of impunity threatens to get even worse According to a supporter who works closely with the Ka’apor council of chiefs and who has received multiple death threats We live under tension from everyone and everything just for defending the forest and its people.” Banner image of a Ka’apor woman and her child on a fishing expedition in a newly occupied and heavily deforested area of their Indigenous territory in the Brazilian state of Maranhão This story was reported by Mongabay’s Brazil team and first published here on our Brazil site on March 8 Related listening from Mongabay’s podcast: How Indigenous and local communities are fighting to gain title to their territories The “fortress conservation” model is under pressure in East Africa as protected areas become battlegrounds over history and global efforts to halt biodiversity loss Mongabay’s Special Issue goes beyond the region’s world-renowned safaris to examine how rural communities and governments are reckoning with conservation’s colonial origins and trying to forge a path forward […] The territory of the Ka'apor people was recognized in 1982 The indigenous land of Alto Turiaçu extends over 530 thousand hectares and is located on the border between the states of Maranhão and Pará in the Brazilian Amazon region This territory is subject to constant illegal logging The challenges and threats faced by human rights defenders in Brazil remain very high particularly for those working on issues of land The high number of killings is of particular concern and takes place against a background of widespread impunity Brazil also continues to be an extremely dangerous place for lesbian transgender and intersex (LGBTi) rights defenders as it maintains the top position in the world ranking of homophobic murders Despite hosting one of the biggest annual Pride Parades in the world and the Supreme Court having recognised equal rights for same-sex couples the state has yet to enact policies and laws that criminalise homophobic crimes Designed and built by Giant Rabbit 1108 Defenders-at-Risk Active Cases Reuters photographer Lunae Parracho recently went on a search and destroy mission in the Amazon with Brazil's Ka'apor Indians Frustrated by the government's lack of action to keep illegal loggers out of the Alto Turiacu Indian territory local warriors from several tribes have taken it upon themselves to find logging camps Parracho documented the scene as Ka'apor warriors captured a number of men in the forest then sent their captives down the road—freed The Ka'apor Indians and four other tribes—the legal inhabitants and caretakers of the territory—have also set up monitoring camps in areas that are being illegally exploited We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com A collection of winning and honored images from this year’s nature-photo competition A collection of amazing recent images made with the Hubble Space Telescope Mourners of Pope Francis gathered at the Vatican scenes from the the second weekend of Coachella 2025 and landscapes of the Earth’s arctic and subarctic regions indigenous people in South America lived in stilt-house villages in the lowlands of present-day Maranhão Archaeological remains of this native group which disappeared before Europeans arrived in the Americas suggest that they were skilled ceramists who probably traded goods and knowledge with other groups in the Amazon and Caribbean the stilt-house villages of Maranhão were first discovered almost 150 years ago but have only recently been properly studied Archaeologists working in the region have differing opinions on the size and social structure of the groups that lived in these settlements the manager of the Archaeology Laboratory at the Federal University of Maranhão (LARQ-UFMA) the largest estearias may have been home to thousands of people who followed the command of one leader director of the Maranhão Natural History and Archaeology Research Center (CPHNAMA) which is associated with the State Department for Culture and Tourism say that there is not enough data to know whether entire estearias were occupied all at one time or whether the inhabitants formed smaller communities that periodically moved to neighboring areas A detailed map of four of the nearly 20 estearias in Baixada Maranhense a wetland region in the east of the Legal Amazon was published in the journal Antiquity in December 2018 Navarro describes the spatial structure and probable dates of occupation of these villages in Boca do Rio which are all located on a stretch of the Turiaçu River near the municipality of Santa Helena 200 kilometers (km) west of the state capital Navarro visited the four villages in the dry season when it is possible to walk on the riverbed and dried-up lakes Using GPS and a total station (a device that measures angles and distances) Navarro recorded the distribution of the stilts on which the houses were once erected Navarro also marked the exact locations from which he collected some 8,500 ceramic fragments as well as wooden and stone objects and some parts of the Americas still live in stilt-houses today “Baixada Maranhense is the only place in Brazil where archaeological remains of this type of construction have been found,” says Navarro “Although the estearias have been known about for a long time little is known about the culture of the people who lived there,” says Leite Filho “The stilts at these two sites were not placed randomly,” Navarro says. “They are arranged into villages that could only have been built by a large number of people collecting long tree trunks under the command of a chief,” he says. Navarro believes the large hubs at the center of the Boca do Rio and Cabeludo sites functioned as village squares; collective spaces where residents held ceremonies and celebrations. Away from these squares, the smaller and simpler constructions would have been huts in which one or more families lived. Áurea Costa  Axe with stone blade and wooden handle found at the Cabeludo site and jade muiraquitã recovered from the Boca do Rio siteÁurea Costa  The locations of ceramic objects found in the larger settlements reinforce this opinion The most elaborate items—statuettes and objects with appliqués and incisions and white—are most commonly found in the central squares Researchers have also found ceramic figures shaped as animals (owls Many of the human figures have had their heads removed the life of the object is ended as well as the ceremony in which it was involved,” explains the archaeologist whose work is funded by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Maranhão Scientific and Technological Research and Development Foundation (FAPEMA) the objects were simpler and were possibly used to store and prepare food “These lake cultures show both similarities and differences with other Amazonian cultures,” said American archaeologist Anna Roosevelt an anthropology professor at the University of Illinois “Some of these groups appear to have developed regional cultures consistent with evidence of complexity.” In anthropology the complexity of a society increases as its population grows and more hierarchical power structures arise Deusdédit Leite Filho/ CPHNAMA Ceramic ornament shaped like a bat’s head…Deusdédit Leite Filho/ CPHNAMA The dates presented in the Antiquity article suggest that the Turiaçu River estearias were occupied between AD 770 and 1,100, around the peak of the Marajoara culture, which arose around AD 400. Navarro, however, reports that more recent and as yet unpublished dating of the stilts, ceramics, and coals suggests that these settlements originated in the first century AD. “The beautiful pottery of the Turiaçu basin shows clear similarities with that found in Marajó,” says Anna Roosevelt, who visited the estearias of the Turiaçu River with Navarro in January and December of 2018. “As we know very little about the early stages of the Marajó polychrome culture, it is possible that this type of painting first emerged in Maranhão before arriving in Pará,” suggests the archaeologist. Pottery from the estearias features distinct decorative patterns and painting techniques Fábio Matta …and a vase decorated like a turtle shellFábio Matta Fábio Matta The aerial image shows near-parallel lines of stakes at the Casca de Coco site in Coqueiro LakeFábio Matta Some have a part shaped like the head of a fish and the liquid comes out of the mouth,” says Leite Filho “The potters of the estearias were skilled artisans but they were not as aesthetically adept as those from Santarém,” he observes In addition to disagreeing with Navarro about the ceramic artifacts Leite Filho also has his own opinion about how the sites were organized and occupied During an intense drought that hit the region in 2012 and 2013 Leite Filho mapped the Casca de Coco site in Coqueiro Lake located between the municipalities of Olinda Nova do Maranhão and São João Batista which were distributed differently than those of the villages found in the Turiaçu River to the north the stakes were arranged in gently winding parallel lines In an article published in the journal Arquivos do Museu de História Natural e Jardim Botânico da UFMG in 2016 Leite Filho states that the layout of the supports suggests that the houses were 50 m long by 8 m wide and possibly designed for collective use as is still the case in other regions of the Amazon it is still impossible to know how the people of these stilt-house villages lived “Very little material has been dated and the objects collected from lake and riverbeds may have been displaced by the movement of buffalo in the region,” he says Leite Filho also says that the fact that the sites are spread over a vast area does not necessarily mean that the entire region was occupied at the same time or that chiefdoms were formed “The chiefdoms are not characterized by concurrent occupation of the sites,” he explains “but by a form of government in which a leader held some form of political control over numerous villages in a wider area.” Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi – Ciências Humanas © Revista Pesquisa FAPESP - All rights reserved Photographer Lunae Parracho followed Ka’apor Indian warriors during a jungle expedition to search and expel illegal loggers from the Alto Turiacu Indian territory Tired of what they say is a lack of sufficient government assistance in keeping loggers off their land who along with four other tribes are the legal inhabitants and caretakers of the territory have sent their warriors out to expel all loggers they find and set up monitoring camps in the areas that are being illegally exploited Illegal loggers blamed for murder of Peru forest campaigner have sent their warriors out to expel all loggers they find and set up monitoring camps in the areas that are being illegally exploited Illegal loggers blamed for murder of Peru forest campaigner A group of warriors from Brazil's indigenous Ka'apor tribe tracked down illegal loggers in the Amazon Photographer Lunae Parracho followed the Ka'apor warriors during their jungle expedition to search for and expel illegal loggers from the Alto Turiacu Indian territory in the Amazon basin have sent their warriors out to expel all loggers they find and set up monitoring camps the Brazilian government said that annual destruction of its Amazon rain forest jumped by 28 percent after four straight years of decline it estimated that 5,843 square kilometres of rain forest were felled in the one-year period ending July 2013 The Amazon rain forest is considered one of the world's most important natural defences against global warming because of its capacity to absorb huge amounts of carbon dioxide Rain forest clearing is responsible for about 75 percent of Brazil's emissions as vegetation is burned and felled trees rot Such activity releases an estimated 400 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year making Brazil at least the sixth-biggest emitter of carbon dioxide gas The page you are looking for cannot be found You may have followed a broken or outdated link