Indians not in Brazil's party mood

By ALEX BELLOS Herald correspondent

PORTO SEGURO - The first encounter between native South Americans and Europeans was tenderly recorded by Pero Vaz de Caminha, the official scribe of the Portuguese flotilla that accidentally arrived on the coast of what is now Brazil on April 22, 1500.

It started with an exchange of gifts. "[We] just gave them a red beret, a linen hood ... and a black hat. And one of them gave us a head-dress of birdfeathers ... another gave us a necklace of white beads," he wrote on the ship that took 43 days to cross the Atlantic.

Unfortunately, however, the relationship went downhill from there.

Five centuries later the descendants of the Indians who welcomed the navigators with presents and smiling faces are living in virtual destitution along a strip of coastline now full of tourist hotels.

Brazil has been marking the 500th anniversary of its discovery with a week of fanfare and celebrations, but the party is being tempered by controversy about the country's ominous legacy regarding its indigenous population.

"We don't think it was a discovery. It was an invasion," says Neusa Mattos Oliveira, a Pataxa Indian who lives where the Portuguese first walked on South American soil.

"If I went into your home, no one would say I discovered it. In 500 years we have lost the majority of our culture, and many of our relatives in the struggle."

At the time of the Portuguese arrival there were an estimated 6 million Indians living in the area of Brazil, made up from 1400 tribes. Now there are 215 tribes left made up of 350,000 Indians, according to the Government's Indian agency.

Most live with the minimum sanitary, health and educational infrastructure. Many, like the Pataxa, survive meagrely by selling flour and handcrafts.

The issue is especially resonant this month because two of the most important sites in Brazil's discovery - Mt Pascoal, the first piece of land spotted by the sailors, and Coroa Vermelha, where the first Mass was taken - are both flashpoints in the battle between Indians and the authorities.

The Pataxa - who number about 6000 - have claimed Mt Pascoal for generations. In 1980 the Government gave them just over a third of the area and turned the rest into a national park. Then, last August, the Pataxa invaded the park, kicking out the staff and seizing the headquarters.

The Indians built huts and now about 1000 live at the site, south of Porto Seguro. It is as symbolic as if some North American Indians took over Plymouth Rock, the landing point of the Pilgrim Fathers.

"All our lives we have been here," says Aracari Pataxa Baix\FA, the tribe's vice-leader, at a roadblock by the park's entrance. "Our families are growing every day. Where are they going to live?"

Under the crossfire of angry claim and counterclaim, the Indians' largest opponents are not local landowners but environmentalists who argue that the pristine Atlantic rainforest that covers Mt Pascoal should be protected from all human interference.

"Okay, so the Indians were here before the white man, but the forest was here before even the Indians arrived," says Carmen Florencio, the departing head of the national park. "Our aim is to keep the biodiversity for ever. The problem is not that they are Indians. We see people as people, and they need to be removed."

At Coroa Vermelha, a small headland and reservation north of Porto Seguro, the Pataxa have come to a less confrontational position with the authorities.

In return for using the area for the main commemoration gala the small Pataxa village has been given a $9 million makeover.

A museum and shopping complex has been built for the Indians' rickety craftwork market stalls. The village has been levelled, new houses are being constructed at the side of the reserve.

However, Oliveira says there is anger that the money is not really aimed at solving the indigenous problem.

"The party is just for them. And they are just helping one Indian community. All the other communities will carry on dying. If they really wanted to help they would help all of us."