The "Indian Chapter" of the new Constitution clearly eliminated the policy distinguishing Indians according to the degree of their cultural adaptation and disavowed the idea of forcible integration. UNI and other Indian organizations played a very important role in that process. NGOs, lawyers, anthropologists and other supporters, who got together to fight for the inclusion of Indian rights into the text of the new Constitution. This was a result of a coalition of Indians. Governmental policies were all aimed at the integration of Indians into the national economy and at their assimilation by the non-Indian world.Īfter the promulgation of the 1988 Constitution, the rights of Indians to maintain their social organization, customs, languages, beliefs and traditions were recognized. Yet, until 1988, the official indigenist policy was guided by the axiom that Indians were fated to lose their own identities, becoming ordinary members of the larger Brazilian society. It was conceived as a national Indian organization, a symbolic point of reference for all Indian peoples in Brazil. UNI was the first national organization directed exclusively by Indians, having no links with the government or the Catholic Church. In 1979, the Union of Indigenous Nations (UNI) was established. A pro-Indian movement comprised of non-governmental organizations and supportive individuals arose from that as well. After that, other Indian-initiated assemblies followed, starting a process that helped Indians learn about their rights and organize themselves towards political struggle. As the first Indian initiative over which the State did not have control, it had major repercussions.
In 1970, an assembly of Indian peoples took place in Brazil. It was during the 1970's that the Indian issue emerged as a concern for Brazilian society. For almost 470 years, the only other major actor in this scenario was the Catholic Church, which played an "assistance role", providing missionaries and educational and health care services to some of the Indian communities. Since the beginning of Brazil's colonization process, the government, civilian or military, always undertook the role of setting the terms and establishing the rules for interaction with Native peoples. Those peoples who remained in the most populated areas of the country have lost large portions of their original territory and Indian peoples still face several problems to guarantee their land rights.
The process of colonization in Brazil has historically pushed Indians from the east coast to the west, towards the isolated regions closer to the Brazilian borders.
They traditionally occupy around 520 areas (about 10 percent of the Brazilian territory) and are largely concentrated in the Amazon region. The Indian population is divided into some 200 different peoples, most of which are very small and spread throughout the country. For example, Indian lands are usually seen as reservations of natural resources which makes them a target of economic interests all over the country. To overcome what has become Brazil's most serious crisis, the government has chosen an economic strategy of promoting development projects which many times denies the rights of Indian peoples. There are two other factors which influence this situation: the extreme poverty of most of the country's population and economic instability, both of which are the major priorities of the Brazilian government today. It is fundamental to consider the low demographic proportion of Indians when discussing the situation of indigenous peoples in Brazil. This number is less than 0.2 percent of the national population (140 million people). There are about 250,000 Indians in Brazil.
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