 |
::01 |
 |
|
The Rikbaktsa live on the Juruena River basin,
in the Northwest of the State of Mato Grosso, in two contiguous
Indigenous Lands: Erikbaktsa, demarcated in 1968 (with
79,935 hectares, recognized and registered), and Japuíra,
demarcated in 1986 (with 152,509 hectares, recognized
and registered as well), and in a third Indigenous Land,
do Escondido, demarcated in 1998 (with 168,938 hectares,
it has been recognized but as of yet not registered),
to the North, on the left bank of the Juruena, totaling
a surface of 401,382 hectares of Amazon forest.
Their traditional territory is located between
9° and 12° South and 57° and 59° W,
spreading through the Juruena River basin from the Papagaio
River in the South to the vicinity of the Augusto Falls,
on the upper Tapajós River, to the North. To
the West, it reached the Aripuanã River, and
to the East the Arinos River, near the Peixes River,
encompassing an area of some 50,000 square kilometers.
Although isolated, the region has been visited
by scientific, commercial and strategic expeditions
since the 17th Century. However, little was known about
the forest inhabited by the Rikbaktsa because, in the
stretches of the Juruena and Arinos rivers that were
part of their territory, the expeditions remained on
the waterways or in their vicinity, almost never moving
away from them. For that reason, until the arrival of
rubber gatherers in the end of the 1940s, no mention
was made of the Rikbaktsa. The absence of previous historical
references and the lack of archaeological studies prevent
the dating of their occupation of the territory. However,
the tribal memory, the geographic references expressed
in their myths and the extensive and detailed knowledge
of the fauna and flora they show regarding their territory
and its surroundings suggest that they have been there
for a long time.
The Rikbaktsa were well known by the neighboring
indigenous groups, with which, almost with no exception,
they have maintained hostile relations. Famous for their
warring ethos, they waged war against the Cinta-Larga
and Suruí to the West, on the Aripuanã
River basin; the Kayabi to the East and the Tapayuna
to the Southeast, on the Arinos River; the Irantxe,
Pareci, Nambiquara and Enauenê-Nauê to the
South, on the Papagaio River and on the headwaters of
the Juruena River; and the Munduruku and Apiaká
to the North, on the lower Tapajós River. They
resisted the presence of rubber gatherers until 1962.
|
::02 |
 |
|
Since the “pacification” of the Rikbaktsa,
which was financed by rubber planters and carried out
by Jesuit missionaries between 1957 and 1962, their traditional
territory has been the object of many pioneer fronts,
such as rubber extraction, timber and mining companies
and agricultural and cattle-raising enterprises. During
the “pacification” process and soon after it,
influenza, chickenpox and smallpox epidemics decimated
75 percent of a population, which was estimated in some
1,300 people at the time of contact. As a consequence,
the Rikbaktsa lost most of their lands, and the majority
of their small children were taken from the villages to
be raised at the Utiariti Jesuit Boarding School (Internato
Jesuítico de Utiariti), on the Papagaio River,
almost 200 kilometers from their homeland. There, the
little Rikbaktsa were raised along with children of other
indigenous groups also contacted by the missionaries.
The surviving adults were gradually transferred from their
original villages to larger ones, which were centralized
under the Jesuit’s catechist administration. In 1968,
about 10 percent of the Rikbaktsa’s original territory
were demarcated as the Erikbaktsa Indigenous Land; from
then on their children began to be taken back to their
villages, and missionary action concentrated in that area.
In the 1970s there was a change in the philosophy
of the missionaries towards the Indians. They reduced
their authoritarian posture, recognizing the right of
the indigenous peoples to their own culture, thus opening
the way for a more effective autonomy, which the Rikbaktsa
had always demanded. Since the end of the 1970s the
Rikbaktsa have struggled to regain control over part
of their traditional lands. In 1985 they managed to
recover the area known as Japuíra, and continued
their effort to get back the Escondido region, which
was finally demarcated in 1998. However, it is still
occupied by miners, timber companies and colonization
companies.
|
Print