Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 29, 1993 TAG: 9308290067
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOA VISTA, BRAZIL LENGTH: Medium
Officials announced last week that as many as 73 Yanomami had been slaughtered by gold miners who had been on the tribe's jungle reservation illegally. But evidence to back up the report is lacking.
That has strengthened the disdain that settlers in this outpost city feel for the Yanomami, who live in conditions approximating those of the Stone Age: occupying communal huts, hunting with bow and arrow, wearing sticks through ears and lips as ornament.
"This whole thing's a big lie to make whites look bad," said Maiara de Vasconcellos, 25, who runs a clothing boutique. "Those Indians are no saints. They probably made up the whole story to get the miners out of the jungle."
For most of the time since Boa Vista was established 70 years ago, the settlers and the Yanomami stayed out of each other's way.
But beginning in the 1980s, there were clashes between the Yanomami and the mining companies and wildcat prospectors who want to exploit the tribe's reservation, which has huge deposits of diamonds, tin, bauxite, and other minerals.
"What in hell do savages need with all that land?" said Joao Johil, a powerful miner's advocate in Roraima state.
Brazilians refer to the 9,000 Yanomami as "monkeys," and "wild children" and spread wild tales about them.
One common allegation is that Yanomami husbands trade their wives for hunting dogs or flashlights. Another is that Yanomami regularly kill children for sport; in fact, children are regarded as sacred in their religion.
Nor do the Yanomami have much good to say about the settlers.
Anthropologists say white men appear foolish to the Yanomami because they cannot survive in the jungle without supplies, are sensitive to insect and snake bites, and get lost easily in the rain forest.
Mistrust of Yanomami also stems from many discrepancies in reports of the massacre by the press and officials.
Word of the killings came Aug. 17 in a letter by a nun working at a remote clinic inside the reservation.
The nun said 10 children, five women, and two men were killed that day in a single ambush at the nearby Haximu village.
Later the National Indian Foundation said 20, then 30, then 73 Yanomami had been slain. Soon rumors had it that 120 Indians had perished. By Friday, however, some Indian Foundation officials began to scale back the number of dead to 30.
A week passed and no bodies were found. Yanomami experts explained that survivors probably cremated family members and ate the powder of their crushed bones with a banana paste as part of a funeral ritual.
Then Foundation officials admitted the massacre could have occurred in July, and said the Yanomami were killed during three separate attacks at three different sites near Haximu.
In Venezuela, newspapers reported Saturday that the government would investigate reports that the Yanomami actually were killed in Venezuela.
by CNB