The warrior disposition of the Paiter has been one of the main forces behind an effective resistance by these people against invaders and exploiters of their territory. From 1971 to 1981, there was a series of armed clashes between the Suruí and invaders. It is estimated that there were around a thousand non-indigenous families in the Indigenous area. Despite the interdiction of the area, the INCRA went on stimulating the illegal entrance of migrants into indigenous territory, illegally selling them plots of land. The Itaporanga Company (Melhorança Brothers ) was responsible for the placing of several families in the indigenous area.

In view of the conflicts, the governor of the then Territory of Rondônia (Humberto da Silva Guedes), the Minister of the Interior (Rangel Reis), the President of the FUNAI (Ismarth de Araújo) and the Projects Coordinator of the National Institute for Agrarian Reform (Hélio de Palma Arruda) visited the indigenous area with the intent of pacifying the situation and solving the problems. The government demarcated the area moving the borders of the area back 9 kilometers on the southern part and between 12-15 kilometers in the eastern part. In order to hold back the invaders, part of the demarcation had to be done with the help of the Military Police. The FUNAI did not succeed in holding back the squatters, who refused to leave even with the land being demarcated, and they destroyed the landmarks and plaques of the FUNAI.

In 1978 the invaders closed the road from Riozinho to the Sete de Setembro Indigenous Post, preventing the entrance of FUNAI employees and vehicles, which caused further conflicts with the Indians. The FUNAI requested the support of the Army, which sent its Frontier Grouping to remove the invaders and make an official register which determined that there was a total of 652 people or 169 families.

In November, 1978, the indigenous land was invaded by 20 families, who took possession of 10% of the territory. In the beginning of the following year, the Paiter threatened the invaders, who had built a 20 kilometer road and installed a sawmill and a rice husker within their territory. The conflicts worsened and the Minister of Agriculture (Delfim Neto) promised to remove the intruders from the area and settle them in another colonization project. However, he never kept his promise. In September, the Paiter received a visit from the President of the FUNAI (Adhemar Ribeiro), who also promised to remove the invaders. A month later, it was the turn of the director of the INCRA, who promised to remove the invaders in April, 1980. The months passed and the invaders continued on the indigenous land, questioning the quality of the plots that the INCRA was offering. The FUNAI convinced the Paiter to not attack the invaders, claiming that the Justice Department would take them out of there. Certain that they would continue there, the invaders filed suit for Maintenance of Possession in the Court of Porto Velho and the FUNAI responded with a plea for Reintegration of Possession. The invaders won, through a holding action granted by the Judge of Porto Velho, the right to remain 90 days on the indigenous land. The FUNAI appealed and the holding action was annulled.

Tired of waiting for actions from non-Indian Justice, in October the Paiter expelled several of the new invaders making them leave their lands naked and unarmed. In October, 1980, there were 87 families of invaders living inside the indigenous land, who were gradually removed – receiving lands in colonization projects, this being the first time that this had occurred in indigenous history – and, one year later, there were only three families left. In 1981 all the invaders had been removed, and the Paiter went on to living in already formed villages where there had been coffee plantations left by the non-Indians.

Polonoroeste

In the years from 1982 to 1986 the Brazilian government launched the Program for Integrated Development of the Northwest of Brazil (POLONOROESTE), involving an investment of 1.55 billion dollars, of which only 2.5% would go to the environmental component and 1.4% to the indigenous component. In the contractual agreements, the federal government and the government of Rondônia assumed the commitment to protect the areas legally defined as reserves.

In this period, the Federal Territory of Rondônia underwent economic transformation and received approximately 200 thousand migrants per year, along with lumbermen, mining companies, land speculators and jumpers, which meant numerous invasions and deforestation on indigenous lands. The land of the Paiter was once again invaded, causing social disorganization and a frightening increase in diseases.

The poor administration of resources made available by the POLONOROESTE meant a lack of money to meet the health needs and to commercialize the products of the Paiter; consequently, in 1987, the FUNAI employees stimulated several indigenous leaders to sell lumber. It is estimated that about two million dollars worth of lumber have been taken out of the indigenous area (CEDI, 1992).

Lumber and mineral prospecting

Besides the nearness of the city and imitation of the colonists’ modes of living, the Funai was responsible for the introduction of a dietary pattern based on rice, beans and sugar, which meant a new form of planting and a new set of habits with definite times for eating, recreational, and planting activities. Little time was left over for hunting, fishing, and holding the traditional festivals. The Paiter, in terrible health conditions, sought assistance in the hospitals of Cacoal and in the Indian House in Riozinho. Under such adverse conditions, it was easy to give in to the enticement of the lumbermen and corrupt employees.

One can thus understand this willingness on the part of the Paiter to enter into accords with lumbermen as a desperate response of the group in view of the lack of resources – above all due to the absence of public policies that would guarantee their quality of life and the integrity of their territory – to confront the impasses created by this cultural frontier situation, which produced a state of anomie in Paiter society.

In the second half of the ‘90s, there was still mineral prospecting activity on the Sete de Setembro Indigenous Land. However, as there was little gold to be found, it didn’t take long for it to lose its force – different from what happened among the neighboring Cinta-Larga, who greatly suffered from the situation of violence and social anomie resulting from the diamond prospecting on their lands.

The accumulation of goods made possible by their – partial and temporary – insertion to the lumber and prospecting market motivated many Paiter to go live in the city of Cacoal, where they have suffered enormously from prejudice against their indigenous identity, being looked upon as privileged due to the aboriginal rights guaranteed to Indians by the Constitution.