Tarnished Gold: Illegal mining stokes Indigenous divisions

RAPOSA SERRA DO SOL INDIGENOUS TERRITORY, Brazil — The mining encampment that stretches across a mountainside in Brazil’s Amazon is dotted with plastic tarpaulin covers. Gold will be extracted from the ore. Of all places this squatter settlement shouldn’t exist, it’s here: in Brazil’s northernmost Roraima state that doesn’t permit gold prospecting, inside one of the nation’s Indigenous reserves where mining activity is illegal and on the flanks of this mountain – Serra do Atola – that traditional leaders of the Macuxi people hold sacred. “There is great incentive coming directly from the state.” Bolsonaro’s endorsement of mining resonates with those locals who support greater economic development with the support from outsiders, Macuxi said. The farming initiative dovetails with a program that Brazil’s Indigenous agency created under Bolsonaro, dubbed “Indigenous Independence.” It enables rural producers and organizations to partner with Indigenous people within reserves to mass produce crops. “What’s really happening is the appropriation of Indigenous lands by outsiders.” Vaz said that Raposa Serra do Sol could represent the future for Brazil’s Indigenous lands far and wide if Bolsonaro’s development-oriented policies continue.