The process of demarcating the Indigenous Land and all the losses that the Yanomami suffered due to invasions of the mining site put the Ye’kuana in a position of preferred intermediaries with non-governmental organizations and government agencies. And if, officially, Ye'kuana presence was notable at the time of the demarcation of the Yanomami Indigenous Land, since then little mention has been made of it.

With the demarcation of the Yanomami Indigenous Land, there was greater control over the area, and the relation of partnership or complicity with the prospectors is far from being resolved among the Ye'kuana leadership, above all due to the insecurity and violence which the presence of these outsiders has brought to their lands. If they are able to get greater resources and goods, which before were rare or non-existent, as a result of prospecting, the choice to maintain their autonomy in relation to organizations and leadership outside the group, whether indigenous or not, predates the period of prospecting.

In contrast to their lack of participation in, and elaboration of projects with NGOs and indigenous associations, the Ye´kuana have been involved with institutions that, in the 1990s, offered paid work opportunities to indigenous people, especially in the areas of health and education. Thus, the Ye'kuana went to work with such organizations as the MDM (Medicine for the World), the MSF (Medicine without Frontiers), the Funasa (National Health Foundation) and even with the DEI (Division of Indigenous Education of the State Secretary of Education of Roraima). In the 1990s a process was also initiated of bringing the Ye'kuana teachers into the OPIR (Organization of Indigenous Teachers of Roraima). The Ye'kuana, who have not given up their maternal language and have not converted to the religions of the "whites", began to be cited by indigenous leaders in discussions about indigenous education as an example of cultural resistance.

Thus, we see in several arenas a kind of inversion in the image of the Ye'kuana: if, for some, they are not such great models in the preservation of nature, due to their recent experience with prospecting, for others, they are models in the preservation of traditional culture.

Besides paid work in the areas of health and education, we can also include military service: nine Ye'kuana men have gone into military service in the Fifth Border Platoon of the Northern Channel Project, in Auaris. But these activities do not separate them from the community. On the contrary, their salary provides them with access to certain goods in the forest or the city, like for example: solar panels; outboard motors and fuel; clothes, weapons and ammunition; material for fishing, or even cell phones, for use in the capitol city. These experiences of communication, travel and socio-spatial mobility have allowed the Ye'kuana to experience a variety of things, building networks of “allies” outside their local communities.

Today, 25 students live in Boa Vista seeking to finish primary and secondary education. But the possibility of studying and getting a paid job without having to leave the villages, as happened with the first students, seems to be more difficult, since the labor market for public services (education and health) is not able to absorb all Ye'kuana students.

The two ethnic groups in Auaris, along with other Yanomami groups, form a representation on the Council of the DSEIY (Special Yanomami Indigenous Sanitary District). In 1999, as part of the new policy for hiring outsiders to perform indigenous health services, five Ye'kuana youths were re-hired by the Urihi (an NGO which has an accord with the Funasa to take care of indigenous health services in the states of Roraima and Amazonas). Previously, these same young men had worked for four years with the Funasa.

In the area of education, there are eight Ye'kuana teachers hired by the State Secretary of Education, seven of whom work in the Ye'kuana State School in Auaris and one in Waikás. In 1991, with the training and hiring of the first Ye'kuana teacher, they founded the Apolinário Gimenez State School, in the community of Fwuduadunha, on the Auaris, which received more than 100 students including basic education and night school. The whole process of creating and formalizing the Ye'kuana into a state school was accompanied by the MEVA missionary who was a teacher and director of the school until the year 2000.

Although working a paid job is, in general, highly valued, the profession of teacher has the most prestige and support among the traditional leadership. The exercise of this profession is directly connected to daily community activities. Due to the importance they give to the schools, various arrangements in social time and traditional roles have been negotiated during this experience. It’s not only the status of public employee of the teachers that has changed in this period.

The politics of projects

For the purpose of earning more income, many indigenous groups are seeking alternatives through self-sustaining projects. This discussion, however, is very recent among the Ye'kuana in Brazil. In Venezuela, on the other hand, there are various associations with projects in progress, both on the part of missionaries and Ye’kuana organizations. In Brazil, although the chiefs have much experience with the outside world, they do not dominate the discourse about “projects”, “financing”, “agencies” or “NGOs". The outside world they know is still the network of contacts of allies in the city besides which has always been a private network.

In 2003, for the first time they received funds for a project, which was approved by the PDPI (Demonstrative Projects for Indigenous Populations) and the objective of which is cultural incentive and the strengthening of dialogue between the elder and younger generation via the revitalization of a traditional festival – the Tanöökö -, the production of a documentary film about the festival and a book in the Ye’kuana language with interviews and illustrations made by the Ye'kuana about the festival.