::01

The Ye´kuana population in Brazil in the year 2000 was around 430 people, divided amongst three communities located on the banks of the Auaris and Uraricoera rivers, in the northwest of the state of Roraima, on the border with Venezuela. Most of this ethnic group lives in Venezuelan territory, where its population is upwards of 4,800 people (Rodriguez and Sarmiento, 2000).

The Ye’kuana community of Auaris is the largest in Brazil, with around 330 people (in the year 2000). Besides Auaris, there is a small community on the upper Auaris River known as Pedra Branca, about ten hours away by boat and trail, and a third community on the Uraricoera River, known as Waikas. The last mentioned has been in existence since the 1980s and has about 80 people. In contrast with Auaris, this is a region which is abundant in fish and game.

According to researchers who have worked in the area, the Ye’kuana are supposed to have settled on Brazilian lands more than a century ago. But the traditional leaders of Auaris say that the Ye’kuana often visited the region long before they decided to build their houses and settle there. It was a hunting area and a region which they passed through to get to the Uraricoera River, to its islands, and later to the Rio Branco, and then to Boa Vista, the capitol of Roraima.

The mythological map of the Ye’kuana, published in the 1970s by De Civrieux, demonstrates that places such as the Island of Maracá (on the Uraricoera River) are part of the topographical landmarks of the mythology of these people. The Auaris region is an area of difficult access due to the rapids and waterfalls, and is about 450 kilometers away from the capitol of Roraima.

Today, the Ye’kuana and the Sanuma (Yanomami subgroup) live in the Auaris region. These two ethnic groups are part of a social network which includes different communities located on both sides of the border. In Brazil, the region of the Auaris River and a good part of the region of the Uraricoera River were demarcated in the 1990s, as Yanomami Indian Land (a total of 9,664,975 hectares, located in the states of Roraima and Amazonas). The three Ye’kuana communities are included in this area.