Brazilian Indians prepare for war

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32707, 9 September 1971, Page 13

Brazilian Indians prepare for war

(N.Z P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) TOCANTINIA (Brazil), September 8. Xerentes Indians, who have given white farmers an ultimatum to get off their tribal hunting grounds in the central Brazilian farming region, were today reported to be pushing ahead with their plans for war if it is ignored.

The “Journal do Brazil," in a special dispatch from this township in north Goias state said that 320 Xerentes in the region had' pledged to give up Christian codes of conduct, re-animate the warlike spirit of their tribe and break out of their diminished lands with bows and arrows. At the same time, other reports said that the Xerentes were building up their arsenal by making an extra 500 bows and ample supplies of arrows. The Xerentes, who have been pushed back into the wooded areas of the region by the advance and development of farming over the years, recently started reprisal raids against the farmers whose land they now claim. In the raids, the Indians

have dispersed crops, killed cattle and started an exodus of farmers from the isolated areas of the region. Officials said that last week alone 30 families numbering 150 people had fled in the face of the raids.-

The -Indians are led by Supreme Chief Kumnikae, who on September 1 gave the farmers 15 days to clear out or engage in war. The authorities, who are taking thg threat seriously, have sent a detachment of 11 military police armed with rifles and sub-machine guns to the nearby village of Porteira to discourage an Indian attack. Talks are also being held in the Federal capital of Brasilia with delegates to the National Indian Foundation to find a peaceful solution to the dispute.