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Arekuna or Jarekuna were the ethnonyms by which the
Taurepang were referred to by those who left written records
over the course of the 19th century. They occupied a region
that was the object of competing colonial interests and
were dispersed among different nations: from the Amajari
river in the basin of the Rio Branco, then the Empire
of Brazil, to Mount Roraima, the point where the borders
of Brazil, Venezuela and British Guiana met and the watershed
separating the Amazon, Orinoco and Essequibo basins; on
the other side of the Pacairama range they also occupied
part of the Venezuelan savannah.
Given their frontier location, the history of contact
with the Taurepang has been characterized to the present
day by the advance of different expanding frontiers. A
first phase of contact with the indigenous peoples of
the Rio Branco basin began at the end of the 18th century
with the establishment by the Portuguese colonial government
of indigenous settlements in the region. This enterprise
was short-lived, with the eruption in 1790 of a large-scale
uprising by the forcibly settled indigenous population.
Following the acknowledgement of the failure of the settlement
policy, in 1787 the governor of the Capitania de São
José do Rio Negro introduced the first heads of
cattle into the region as an alternative colonization
strategy, since the grasslands of the upper Rio Branco
were, from a Portuguese perspective, particularly suitable
for cattle raising by providing natural grazing. The ‘Fazenda
do Rei’ was thus established. Two further ranching
enterprises were subsequently established, although the
dates in question are not clear. At first these were private
enterprises, but they subsequently came under the control
of the state.
From the 1840s onwards the border dispute with British
Guiana would focus the attention of the state on the Rio
Branco region, and especially on the question of the ‘fazendas
nacionais’. The limits of one of these ranches, the
so-called Fazenda Nacional de São Marcos, coincide
exactly with the limits of the current Terra Indígena
São Marcos, whose area, together with the other
two properties, cover the grasslands of the upper Rio
Branco region almost in their entirety. The area did not
consist therefore of untitled land, but of large estates
belonging to the federal government, whose interest in
them lay in the fact of their being located on a disputed
border.
There is no trace of the presence of civilian settlers
in the region prior to the 1880s, after which the consolidation
of cattle ranching took place, spurred by the wave of
migration caused by the droughts in the Brazilian Northeast.
In the brief period between 1877 and 1885 the number of
head of cattle tripled to reach twenty thousand. The number
of private ranches along the right banks of the Branco
and Uraricoera rivers also multiplied, to the detriment
of the Fazendas Nacionais. The practice of extensive cattle
raising adopted in the region, with herds left to roam
free and where ranches were not fenced, thus facilitating
cattle rustling, lent itself to the creation of innumerable
private herds (Koch-Grunberg, 1924).
The Jarecuna (or Taurepang) were seriously affected by
the growth of ranching and, like their Macuxi and Wapixana
neighbours, provided the labour required to work the ranches.
Indigenous labour thus became a essential element for
the consolidation of the cattle raising economy of the
region since, as well as providing herdsmen to manage
the cattle, it was indigenous labour that rowed the boats
that constituted the communication between the upper Rio
Branco grasslands and Manaus (Farage e Santilli, 1992).
This was the background to the first wave of migration
of indians from the Rio Branco region to neighbouring
countries which intensified from the 1930s onwards.
The SPI and the Fazenda São Marcos
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NThis was the situation when the Serviço de
Proteção aos Índios (SPI), the
official indigenous affairs agency during the years
1910 to 1967, arrived on the scene. In 1912 it sent
an employee to the area lying between the Maú,
Tacutu, Surumu and Cotingo rivers (Zany, 1914a). The
official reported that the main demand the indians made
to the newly-established Inspetoria do Rio Branco was
the demarcation of their lands, by now suffering high
levels of encroachment, above all in the Amajari river
region, where the SPI now concentrated its activities.
Responsibility for the Fazenda São Marcos was
transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture, where it
came under the administration of the Superintendência
da Defesa da Borracha (rubber protection board). When
this was abolished in 1915, responsibility for maintaining
São Marcos fell to the SPI. Within the boundaries
of the property lay part of the Taurepang territory
(between the upper courses of the Surumu and Amajari
rivers), several Macuxi villages (located on the middle
Surumu), as well as part of the Wapixana territory (in
the region of the confluence of the Tacutu and Uaricoera
rivers). Small portions of three large territories previously
extending beyond national boundaries thus ended up being
brought together as one.
The activities of the SPI became more consistent with
the creation of an indigenous post at the headquarters
of the property. Under its new administration the property
received a series of improvements and the herd grew
considerably. During the period from 1915 to 1930 a
series of investments were made, including efforts to
survey and demarcate the property (1920); health services
(combating the 1920 bilious fever epidemic); the creation
of an Indigenous Agricultural School (which in 1920
had 31 students); the Teófilo Leal Indigenous
School (1924); innumerable improvements in infrastructure
and growth of the herd (1924); and attempts to restore
regular river communication between São Marcos
and Manaus (1928).
By these actions the SPI inspector hoped to directly
influence the specific land occupation regime of the
Taurepang, Wapixana and Macuxi, traditional occupants
of the São Marcos area. One of the guiding principles
of the SPI constitution was the expectation of training
and disciplining indian labour, transforming indians
into ‘workers for the nation’ who would protect
these distant frontiers.
From the 1930s onwards however we can detect signs of
decadence in the activities carried out by the SPI.
At the beginning of the decade claims of rustling and
the disappearance of cattle from distant parts of the
property resurfaced. In the 1940s there were the first
reports of a new economic activity being undertaken
on the São Marcos grasslands: contraband of goods
over the Venezuelan frontier, where the government had
established the town of Santa Elena.
Over the next decade the size of the herd continued
to drop and the property to decline, according to an
employee of the Manuas SPI inspectorate: “the victim
of total pillage, with thousands of cattle having gone
to start up numerous private ranches. Thus this important
national asset has been looted and dissipated under
the helpless, and also without doubt complicit, eyes
of the authorities” (Lage, 1956). It is clear that
by the time of the abolition of the SPI in 1967 this
situation had not changed, and had probably got even
worse. The SPI was therefore unsuccessful in its attempt
to prevent the usurpation of the lands of São
Marcos. The history of contact with the groups existing
there has thus been characterized more by the growth
of ranching than by the comforting dream of establishing
indigenous agricultural settlements. The use of indigenous
labour on the ranches and the growth of oppressive relations
with ranchers became the emblem of local indigenous
history. There are past episodes, remembered to this
day by the indians of São Marcos, of the expulsion
of whole villages by ranchers establishing their properties.
Funai and the BR-174 highway
In 1969 an early administrative measure of Funai was
to transform the fazenda into the ‘Colônia
Indígena Agropecuária de São Marcos’.
Despite the use of the term ‘colony’ the Fazenda
São Marcos continued to operate for the exclusive
use of its resident indian population. However a new
type of intrusion was occurring at the time. It was
the time of road building in the Amazon and the BR-174
highway, linking Manaus to Boa Vista and then on to
the border with Venezuela, had entered the area of the
fazenda after crossing the Parimé river. It ran
for 66 kilometres through the area, more precisely through
its northern portion where the grasslands end and the
forest begins, where the land is most fertile and where
the Taurepang were concentrated.
At the end of the 1980s the National Security Council,
through the Calha Norte project, started becoming heavily
involved in government indian policy. It suggested the
transformation of the lands inhabited by supposedly
acculturated indigenous populations into ‘colônias’
[agricultural settlements], thereby allowing the populating
of the country’s northern borders. São Marcos
was clearly the strongest candidate for such a change
of status, not least because it already contained the
word ‘colônia’ in its name, had witnessed
the growth within its boundaries of the town of Pacaraima
at the far end of the BR-174 on the Venezuelan border,
and had seen the arrival of new occupants who had settled
along the edges of the highway. In addition, as the
Colônia Indígena Agropecuária, São
Marcos had experienced the loss of a portion of about
a thousand hectares of its area on the border to the
establishment of an army post in 1975, the physical
demarcation of the area in 1976 and the first systematic
survey of non-indian occupants in 1979 (Funai files
434/90 and 2504/79), as well as the growth and worsening
of the conflicts with illegal occupants arriving mainly
as a result of the construction of the highway.
The total number of illegal occupants recorded in 1979
was 91; by 1995 this had grown to 106. As we have seen,
there have been two distinct expanding frontiers leading
to the outside encroachment onto the lands of São
Marcos: one beginning at the end of the 19th century
and which grew over the course of the following decades
with the occupation of the Parimé and Surumu
river basins by cattle ranches; and a second phase beginning
in the 1970s with the opening of the BR-174 and the
wave of agricultural squatters who settled along the
edges of the highway. In other words, a first ranching
frontier, river-based and affecting the southern and
central parts of the area; and a second agricultural
intrusion, by road and affecting the northern portion.
Both counted on the explicit support of the local state
authorities – in the first case, this involved
the state of Amazonas and in the second the former Federal
Territory of Roraima (Funai file 2504/79).
Between 1995 and 1996 the government of Roraima upgraded
the town of Pacaraima to a municipality, investing in
its infrastructure and attracting more families through
the distribution of plots of urban land. During this
period the governor of Roraima, Ottomar de Souza Pinto,
dedicated himself to legalizing the presence of the
squatters by proposing a spurious agreement under which
one side of the highway would be granted to the squatters
and the other to the indigenous villages, an arrangement
that ended up being accepted and which persists to this
day.
The Guri transmission line and the removal of intruders
from the TI
This was the situation when negotiations started with
Eletronorte (Centrais Elétricas do Norte do Brasil)
on the course of the transmission line bringing electricity
from Guri. In April 1997 Eletronorte was granted authorization
by the federal government to install an electricity
transmission line connecting Boa Vista to the Guri hydroelectricity
complex in Venezuela.
In developing the initial studies for the transmission
line project, Eletronorte concluded that the most appropriate
route for the line would be for it to be constructed
alongside the BR-174 highway, cutting across the Terras
Indígenas São Marcos and Ponta da Serra.
At the same time as it undertook the necessary steps
for the environmental licensing of the projects, through
its indigenous affairs team Eletronorte took steps to
begin a process of consultation and negotiation with
the indigenous villages.
The negotiations on the course of the power line began
in 1997 and it did not take long for a proposal to compulsorily
acquire the ranches and remove intruders from the TI
in exchange for permission to carry out the project
to become the main item of negotiation.
Although they remained apprehensive about the consequences
of constructing the power line so close to their villages,
the pragmatism demonstrated by the indians in accepting
the agreement was due to the situation in which São
Marcos found itself: the demographic growth of the villages
and the arrival of families from other indigenous areas
on the high plains were regarded as factors that would
lead to serious problems of space if the removal of
non-indian intruders was not achieved. A further aggravating
factor was that the principal development strategy in
vogue amongst the indigenous population was to increase
their herds of cattle.
High tension cables and metal pylons became part of
the landscape of the region, though not without serious
conflicts and negotiations between the affected indigenous
populations, federal agencies and local authorities
of both countries.
Eletronorte was responsible for funding the arrangements
to compensate ranchers for investments made on the ranches
and for a monitoring system that ensured the exit of
around 110 squatters. The indians were also able to
obtain the restoration of areas degraded by the construction
of the electricity pylons and compensation for those
that could not be restored because of their proximity
to the line. In addition a number were individually
compensated for damage to their private property.
The removal of intruders was achieved following a series
of legal battles with the squatters. The process was
made more difficult by the weak performance of Funai
and by the local legal system which attempted to do
a series of deals with the intruders. Although the negotiations
started in 1997, the last rancher only left the area
in April 2002.
On the Venezuelan side, the conflicts around the construction
of the transmission line were much greater and delayed
completion of the project by more than a year. The transmission
pylons run for 80 kilometres from the Gran Sabana National
Park and the Imataca forest in the state of Bolivar
in southern Venezuela, home to more than fifty indigenous
communities. Indians of the Pemon, Akawayo, Arawako
and Kariña groups protested against the project
and stopped construction on several occasions by bringing
down pylons, blocking roads and demonstrating outside
the Brazilian embassy in Caracas. Following lengthy
negotiations, in January 2001 an agreement was signed
between Fibe (Federação Indígena
do Estado de Bolívar) and president Hugo Chavez.
A joint committee was established with equal numbers
of indigenous and government representatives to demarcate
the indigenous areas and assess the impacts on the communities
of mining, forestry and tourism activities in the region.
The Venezuelan government also committed itself to not
allowing the installation of public or private industrial
projects in the communities without consulting the leaders
of each group. It also created a permanent sustainable
development fund to support indigenous community projects.
Some months later, in August 2001, the Guri transmission
line was finally inaugurated with the presence of the
presidents of both Brazil and Venezuela.
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