Xavante[1], a bellicose nation of Mato Grosso
This story is in progress right now as our friend Wéré'è is heading towards
the Chavante territory to bring more clues and evidence to the world from
this tribe of the Brazilian Mato Grosso
By Wéré'è (many persons in one)
The Foreword and the main article are composed and enriched with the most
accurate way by Emmanouel Laleos, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
Foreword
Wéré'è is one of our many connections we have from Brazil who has given us
important information about the Brazilian nation of Xavante that is a tribe
of primitive and warlike Indians who inhabit the shores of the Rio das
Mortes (River of the Dead) in the remotest jungles of Mato Grosso in Brazil
and permission to visit their territory is rarely given. However, it was a
filming party led by Rolf Blomberg and the first non-Brazilian expedition
ever to go there traveling over 12,000 miles to make a documentary film
including the life of the Xavante and other primitive tribes, their dances
and realistic war games as well as many other colorful and little known
parts of this vast country, the exotic fauna and flora of its immense
jungles and of the everlasting mystery surrounding the fate of Colonel
Fawcett.
Different reports connected the rumour about the association between Colonel
Fawcett and the Xavante. According to one of these reports, Colonel Fawcett
wanted to visit the nation of Xavante during his last ill-fated expedition
in 1925 and he asked from the Kalapalo Indians to help him reach their
territory giving him guides and porters. The Kalapalo Indian leader Izarari
refused to do it as he claimed that his tribe was not in friendly terms with
the Xavante.
Colonel Fawcett was persistent and pressed Izarari repeatedly to let him
have the men he asked for and Izarari, in order to put an end to further
nuisance and inconvenience from this troublesome white stranger, killed him
and his son. Raleigh Rimell, the third member of Fawcett's expedition, was
already dead after being gravely ill with malignant infection of the leg
caused by the larvae of the bot-fly, and had most likely died of blood
poisoning.
That was and still is believed to have happened to Fawcett's ill-fated
expedition of 1925 by many explorers and writers nowadays even if the truth
is quite different if we consider the results of our five years research.
Emmanouel Laleos
The existing legend of the Xavante
I insist on calling the indigenous peoples nations as they are. As a matter
of fact it is odd to read in the 20th century literature about ´tribes
whereas in the documents I read from the 17th and 18th century they refer to
the Xavante and others as ´nations´; tribe is a 19th century word, used to
minimize the importance of those conquered and vanquished ones. The Xavante
lived in an area now known as the State of Goias and were lots of them but
have been reduced to a mere 1000 or hundreds in 17th and 18th century
through the Bandeirantes, military.
I found out in the Bibliotéca Nacional (national library) of Rio de Janeiro
that the Xavante were originally estimated with 8000 people, initially, when
they were enslaved and put into villages (aldeiamentos ) set up by the army
and governor- due to that reduced to a mere 1000 by the end of the 19th
century. In those villages they were put together with nations such as
Karaja, Kayapo and others. They had what they called 'capitães' (appointed
chiefs by the Portuguese crown) who had to obey to the administrator and the
governor who again had to comply with the king Dom Pedro´s III orders. The
Xavante had enough of it, of the betrayal, slavery and abuse and at one
point killed all the captiães and fled back to the forests. Launching one
attack after the other never to wanting to meet whites again. They have
memorized the brutality of the whites and passed on the insults they endured
from generation to generation. According to the anthropologists, they were
1000 people, but finally split up in two groups running away from slavery
here and there, from that group emerged later on the Xerente, who have
similar customs and language.
Just as the Xavante, the Xerentes belong to the linguistic family of the Gê
trunk (others are the Kraho and Bakairi) They are semi-nomadic, gatherer
hunters like the Xavante and share a ritual such as the ´Úiwede´ - a log
race. They race in two teams with a log from the buruti palm tree.
There is a debate about where the Xavante came from, according to the
Xavante myth passed on from generation to generation they believe they once
lived near the sea. Anthropologists know for sure they used to live in an
area what is now the state of Goias, which in 16th century must have been a
capitânia (a sort of land rented out to a ´fidalgo´[2] a nobleman).
This because the King of Portugal, João III had problems populating and
controlling the new colony (Brazil); very little was found they hoped for,
such as gold and other riches like in India. Invasions of the French and
English pirates along the Brazilian littoral was too much to bear, so they
applied the same system of ´capitãnias´ as they did in Africa. Some fidalgos
were good at administering it, others were a fiasco; the fidalgo could
anything he pleased within that territory, such as keeping (Indian) slaves
and organize plantations, etc.
The Xavante ran into unknown territory of the Karajá and created new enemies
such as the fiery Kayapó they had to fight too. It seemed they never ran
into trouble with the Tapirapé´s, who live north of the Karajá. They crossed
the São Francisco river in Goias, the river that also runs through the state
of Minas Gerais, where they lived for a period, the Cristalino (now State of
Tocantins) and finally crossed into Mato Grosso on the right bank of the Rio
das Mortes, where they were safe till 1941. The expedition run by a general
named Pimentel Barbosa, was the first to try to get them pacified and give
up their fight. The general got massacred with his troops. Then came
Francisco (Chico) Mereiles, who met them 3 times, only the fourth in 1947 or
49 did he succeed. But it was by the initiative of a chief called Apewen
that he got invited to make peace. This cacique told his men not to kill the
whites anymore. Later on in the next two years, farmers, agro-pecuarian
companies that deal with agricultural development and army robbed their
land.
They had a long struggle to recuperate some of the lands and finally in the
late seventies and eighties their land -not all of it- got recognized and
demarcated. Their most famous leader was Mario Juruna, who made it as a
senator into Congress. He died last year of diabetes. Famous for recording
corrupt official with his tape recorder. So, they had a reason to be
bellicose and be strong, their history was one of betrayal all the way. As
my blood brother said: I am not afraid of anything only from God!
Wéré'è
Mario Juruna when he was senator and still young
Our correspondence with Wéré'è began recently after his first contact with
us through 'The Great Web of Percy Harrison Fawcett'. Wéré'è kept me
informed about his entire extraordinary story concerning his emotional and
hard to be believed contact with the Xavante nation and his blood pact
relationship with the Chief of the nation in 1989.
Wéré'è started the narration of his story that was interrupted by me several
times in order to make some clarifications:
I am a Flemish artist based on Belgium (Brussels) writing a book on my stay
with the Xavante nation of Mato Grosso. However, I am not often in Belgium
anymore, so to speak I am homeless now, because I live in Asia: India,
Nepal, Cambodia most of the time. I have also been 6 times in Thailand and
Malaysia. In Thailand I got in touch with the Karen refugees near the
Myanmar border and last 2 years ago I celebrated the Hmong New year with the
Hmong nation, I also visited the Kamu and the Lahui in Laos. My story
concerns my adoption through a blood pact with a Xavante chief in 1989. In
addition, in one of my trips in the reservation I saw a Xavante boy with
brown hair-theirs is pitch black.
What was the age of the boy and when was that visit of yours in
the reservation?
It was in 1991 in October I think. He must have been around 6 or
7 years old, very shy and afraid of me. I have never seen any kid like that
with the Xavante. I am not sure- too long ago, but I believe even his eyes
weren't pitch black like his folks.
Do you have a photo of him?
I have no pictures whatsoever of that boy but maybe I can even
retrace him this time, just maybe if I meet the right people. The 'father'
said to me smilingly he was a child of an 'Alemão' (their slang for European
or white man or German). Due to my inhibition and fear that the crying boy
would get more upset I didn't take a picture of him. About the little boy,
many boys hid from me, as I was white, blue eyed. I thought it was his uncle
who laughed with him as he cried. I was alone and I had no interpreter, so
what could I ask? I believe he lived in the village of Aldeona, which is
part of the reserve Kuluene, which again is a sub-reserve of the Parabubure
reservation. The latter is about 330.000 hectares if I am not mistaken.
The Parabubure Xavante reservation
The reason why I am referring to the Xavante is because of a Dutch author
who wrote a book about his expedition in Mato Grosso, to the Serra Do
Roncador in 1949."
His book 'Het Geheim van de Roos' (The Secret of the Rose) written by Marcel
Roos, was launched and it claimed that it was going to disclose the mystery
of the disappearance of Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett. En route he got in
touch with the Xavante whom he tried to interview about the mysterious
primitive rock paintings in the area of Roncador. The Xavante told him to
leave.
The meeting and the ceremony
On my question to Wéré'è concerning his story with the Xavante and when and
why they had adopted him, he referred to this event with the following
description:
I stumbled upon two Xavante chiefs (caciques) in a small pension called Rio
Verde in the popular area in capital Cuiabá in 1989 in the month of July. We
had a long talk for hours, I asked them whether I could stay in their
village to learn about the culture. Somewhere in my young life I always have
believed that I had been an Indian in another life. Here in Belgium I worked
as a volunteer with non-profit organizations to accompany Native American
and Canadian delegations in Brussels on their quest for justice and human
rights travelling to Geneva.
That's how I met Floyd Red Crow Western man and some people of the Nuchalk
nation from the Bella Coola reservation in British Columbia, just to name a
few. During my stay in their village of Santa Cruz, the chief named Josué,
mentioned many a time that we had the same blood and only our colour was
different. In the end one evening I was taken by surprise and summoned to
the village centre where we had a blood brother ceremony. He was 39 and I
30. We drank each other's blood. Josué had an uncle, an old chief, named
Arão who lived in the village of Corrego da Mata, about 8 km away. The old
man came all the way on foot to meet me in Santa Cruz and to witness the
blood pact that was bound to happen there.
Wéré'è and the Xavante chief Josué during the blood brother ceremony
He had made a yellow-feathered headdress for me. He said he'd had a vision
of a white man who would come to make peace with the Xavante. He thought I
was the one, he said. As he told this to me -my blood brother translated
simultaneously-, he had tears in his eyes and embraced me.
Ever since, my name is Wéré'è (many persons in one) but two months later I
had to leave the reservation because another village Aldeona of the opposite
faction/clan spread the rumour that I was a sorcerer and that I was there to
kill the Xavante and look dig for gold. It was about a young sorcerer of 26
years old who wanted to kill me. In short I had become a political refugee
(my status as a reject who could all but leave) with 4 bodyguards during 3
nights in and around my hut. I left soon after only to return upon my blood
brothers' request in 1991. I organized permanent water channels from two
different springs to two villages, our village Santa Cruz and Corrego da
Mata. I had to raise money for that for a full year. It wasn't an easy task
because I had no experience in the field; I wasn't a technician or an
engineer but an artist painter.
The Xavante village of Santa Cruz located in the southern part of Rio
Kuluene
How far is the village of your blood brother from the Parabubure
Xavante Reservation? I asked Wéré'è
The nearest town is Campinápolis outside of the reservation must
be around two hours of drive I think. There is also the river Couto
Magelhães flowing through a Xavante village named São Pedro. I knew the
cacique (chief) of that village in 1991. From Cuiabá to Campinápolis is
about 2 days and one night. There are shortcuts, which could reduce it to
half the time if I were going to go with the missionaries from the São
Marcos reservations. But we aren't friends anymore.
Corrego da mata, a village I visited with my blood brother and where with
the Silesian missionaries I had installed a long tube over 4 km channeling
water from a well to the village, I did the same for Santa Cruz.
From Campinápolis to Nova Xavantina takes about 5 hours and another 6 hours
over unjeepable roads and broken eroded bridges and is unfeasible during the
rainy season. Indians are minors and are dealt with through state
intelligence and security. Never tell the police you want to stay with this
or that tribe because you will get arrested and be deported unless you are
an anthropologist and even then it takes up to 5 years before you get your
permit. Most of the time I was dependent on Xavante with a truck to get into
their land. Had it not been for the caciques who expressed their underscored
their will to invite me then surely FUNAI would have said no to me. Angelo
and Modesto are my nearest friends from the village of Santa Cruz.
Modesto pulling an arrow aiming his target
Modesto is wearing a necklace, a lower jawbone of an ocelot (*) that was
shot by my uncle Tomé, on the plantation, where he got nearly killed by it.
The necklace of the ocelot was made for me upon my request by my neighbour
and uncle Tomé who was then already in his sixties. He moved away from the
village in 1990 or 91 because of the conflicts between the protestant and
catholic feuds in Santa Cruz. I never saw him again. He was very gentile,
kind to me and always ready to help me out. He came and massaged my head
when I suffered sunstroke once. It was Tomé´s son who shot the ocelot. They
skinned it to sell the skin in the city. The carcass was left to rot. I who
had been going hungry on dry rice, wanted to fry the meat, only to puke it
out because of an allergy attack- I am allergic to cats. But I had also
broken a big taboo. Josue came to ground me for that. He said, their
ancestors had never eaten that beast and never would. The kids though wanted
to eat it secretly behind my hut, because they were going hungry too. A
jaguar is seen as a great shaman by many indigenous peoples in the Americas.
Modesto became a young pastor through the training by the Brazilian
evangelical mission, Missãao Evangelica. He was only 17 when I met him. I
was sharing a hut with a young couple of evangelical pastors, Tamara and
Andrè, who were constantly praying, and teaching primary classes. Andrè even
scolded me for wearing a pair of swimming trunk in the village. According to
their norms, it was obscene and I wasn't in Rio after all, they told me.
(*) Ocelot is a nocturnal wildcat (Felis pardalis or Leopardus pardalis) of
the brush and forests of the Central and South America, having a grayish or
yellow coat with black spots.
The Enchanted Lake
Near the Xavante village in the Kuluene reservation lies a very mysterious
lake -I remember it to be steel blue- in which the Xavante dare to swim but
are afraid to dive in it for the fear of being sucked in at the bottom by
the evil spirits. The Xavante people believe that bad spirits dwell in lakes
and good spirits in running water, such as in rivers.
Do you know, I said to Wéré'è, the name of the Lake that Xavante
were afraid to swim because of their belief that it was a demonic one?
I believe the lake is called 'a lagoa encantada' (the enchanted
lake). They named it like that because there is no life in that water. Once
a cacique has seen a UFO hovering over the lake on 2 occasions. I thought it
had a colour as blue as hard steel.
The "enchanted lake", a tiny lake near the village of São Pedro
Do you know the lake's coordinates?
I have no coordinates as the maps of that indigenous area are
considered state intelligence. There were rumours that maybe there could
have been tunnels connected to it. It is situated on the east side of the
Parabubure Xavante reservation. The Parabubure area is only showing a tiny
lake near a Xavante village right on the eastern border of the reservation.
It bears no name whatsoever. I don't think it could have been that one as I
cannot recall any village near, that time, but then one forgets after so
many years and things become a little more blurred in the memory.
There is the tribe of snake eaters who are the Nambiquara Indians, who also
live in Mato Grosso, Brazil and who have been part of the Ugha Mongulala
nation, mentioned in the Chronicle of Akakor. The map of Mato Grosso is
showing all reservations but near Parabubure or inside, no lake is drawn up.
I cannot recall if any lake was situated on it, but it might. There are
detailed maps with all reservations on it -it used to- sold by CEDI, a
company in Sao Paulo.
I do know that Fawcett examined very closely the customs and the language of
some tribes including the Nambiquara Indians. I reported to Wéré'è
In Fawcett's writings 1920-1924 there are numerous notes on particular
Indian tribes. He studied the language of tribes he intended to visit as
well as their customs and etiquette. The tribes he studies in details are;
Mundurucu, Apiaka,Kayabi, Bororo and Nambikwara. All these nations inhabited
areas North West and West of Cuiabá. Fawcett never ever mentioned or ever
collected information about the Nafhaqua, the Kalapalo, the Xavante or the
Suia (all to the Northeast) and he had never been to Mato Grosso.
The Nambiquara were mentioned in the book the Chronicle of Akakor itself as
the snake eating people. You mentioned that Fawcett never got in touch with
the Xavante; he might have because they too secure a portal and have seven
keys to it. Some Indians of Xingú believe he has drowned in the Rio das
Mortes. They will not allow anyone come near the area, that is the Serra do
Roncador. There are many sacred areas that the Xavante protect to which no
white man is allowed to go unless a Xavante accompanies him and they refuse
to any further in it as much as they refuse to deep dive in the lake.
Other readings on Fawcett, tell me that he was a very arrogant man and that
he really misbehaved with the Kalapalo who helped him and guided him. He
even left his son behind at one point and went off alone. Some believe the
Kalapalo must have taken revenge on him at night. Though a finger also
points at the Kuikuro...
The Serra do Roncador
The Serra do Roncador is known to host several mystic organizations. I met a
widow of a Swede (second generation) who founded a kind of druid sect in
that area.
Regarding the Serra do Roncador and your connections there, I
asked Wéré'è again. What else did she find or sight there besides the
airfield of beings from outer space?
Jerônimo Xavante
Detail of a mural for Berô Can indigenous handicraft shop, 1995 Barra do
Garcas, Brazil
By Wéré'è
The people there are very interested in occult forces, that's why
they talk so much about the spiritualist Alan Kardek, lots of new age and
esoteric groups. Her husband I once saw on a picture at her home wore a kind
of Ku Klux Klan outfit, only the hood was like a chopped off KKK hood. She
told me they had gatherings in the Serra do Roncador. Her husband had bought
a piece of land there - which is now her property-, because he wanted the
area not to become developed and spoiled. There were ideas and plans to
build an airport - the second in the world (the other in Japan)- for aliens
from outer space. That's how much Mato Grosso is just full of whispers,
spiritualists and occult forces.
What was the name of the Swede's widow?
I am sorry that I cannot remember her surname. But I know the
people she worked for in an indigenous artifact shop in Barra do Garças
called Berô Can. She might still be working for them. I saw her last in 1995
there. I painted a huge mural on their shop representing the 3 nations of
the region in the mean time it has been deleted because the shop was sold.
Have you ever been near the area of the airstrip to serve the
aliens of outer space?
Unfortunately not! According to the State's pilots, they have
never witnessed any UFO activity. Strange no, when so many ordinary people
even the utmost skeptics saw and started believing, some first visited a
shrink or were at the point of doing so. The airport has never been built in
Barra do Garças but the idea is still there. The table mount of Jerônimo is
according to many people who have visited it in the national park Chapada
dos Guimarães an airstrip for (UFO). Lots of people from the region have
experienced magnetic or electric fields and have seen white circles or
creatures almost transparent emerging from those white lights.
There is a kind of corridor that involves the parallel 15 degrees
south, the same that goes in the region of Brasilia Peru and Bolivia,
according to my sources. The national park Chapada dos Guimarães I visited,
it is huge!!! You need a 4X4car to get around. I have seen 'veu da noiva',
jacaré and from a distance the plateau of 'Jerônimo', I think I passed 'o
dedo de deus' (the finger of god) but cannot recall exactly.
The national park Chapada dos Guimaraes
What is your personal opinion concerning these airfields of UFOs?
Listen, I believe in the realm of Akakor and I think it isn't a
whim of the national government to having built an airstrip, no matter how
ludicrous this may sound to Mr. average. The area is famous for lots of
mystics and sects. It maybe that the sect to which that widow's husband
belonged was named 'o Monastario do Roncador' (the monastery of Roncador).
It's a world of magnetism and energy in Mato Grosso. That sect or group
possessed many secret rituals and they believed that in the region of the
Serra do Roncador at the foot of an outcrop named 'o dedo de deus' (the
finger of God), a portal (door) materialized when an alignment of stars took
place. They had 200 followers.
They say that when the portal is open, one say one can hear voices and music
and one can see people walking like if in a city. There are other portals in
Manaus, Foz d' Iguaçu in the State of Paraná and at the Serra do Roncador.
I met a German who didn't want his picture taken, known as 'o Alemão' of
course he could have been a man with a nazi past. But then for years,
another German was killing tourists in that Amazon region; the federal
police was still looking for him in 1995. He had a girlfriend who was a
nurse.
The same year in Sao Paulo I met a surgeon in Sao Paulo who was treating
Yanomami Indians with shot wounds. He told me about that German he had met
in Manaus. The guy had asked him to send him a few tourists to Manaus.
I also had conversation with Vicente Rios, I hope I got his name correct,
who made a documented destruction of the Amazon during 10 years for the BBC.
He filmed and had spoken with the parents of a boy who got kidnapped by the
Ureu-Wau Wau Indians. Fabio, a blond little boy of seven was never seen
again.
Director John Boorman based his 'Emerald Forest' film on that story and met
up with Vicente. When the Ureu Wau Waus were pacified, they were asked to
show the boy's grave, but there were no bones in it. So no one knows what
happened to him. One believes he is still alive and for a plausible reason.
Probably, the Indians wanted to learn Portuguese from him so they could
understand the ways of the Brazilians, some say.
During my correspondence with Wéré'è, he noticed that I did not respond to
the name of Marcel Roos so in his next mail to me he said:
You didn't react on the Dutch author's name Marcel Roos and his story. But
maybe it's not so important. My book, which is written in Dutch, is partly
written for an 80%. It's about my stay with the Xavante and how I got
adopted into the tribe, my observations of the missionaries and my overall
view on indigenous politics in Brazil. I hope this will do.
This whole history really intrigues me.
As a matter of fact I will be back soon to stay with the Xavante to complete
my book. I think I will be travelling to Brazil in June of 2004 and this
time I will certainly keep my eyes and ears open but be more prudent at the
same time, because it's such a violent country especially once we enter into
the indigenous conflicts with the settlers.
When you visit the Xavante in June as you said for the completion
of your book, how long do you intend to stay there? I asked Wéré'è .
Well, this is a very delicate matter, Wéré'è said; as it has been
since 1991 I was in the reservation. If my blood brother is not the chief
anymore, I can't be quite sure of a guarantee that I will be allowed in. He
is not the big boss of the reservation but a certain Abrão is.
There are conflicts between protestant and catholic factions, lots of
intrigues played out by missionaries there, such as the Summer Institute of
Linguistics. Rumours have it they are there with the financial support of
the CIA.
They have their own air balloons and airstrips, though they have been
expelled in Venezuela because they thought of some tribes and set them up
against the socialist government.
Wéré'è having on his left Narciso who in 1991 claimed that he wanted to
succeed Josué, but when he met him in Goiânia, capital of Goias State in the
casa do Indio (House of the Indian, a FUNAI place where they get [medical]
aid), he still wasn't one. The second of his left is his younger brother.
The photo is taken during a dance in their village of Santa Cruz, a
friendship and welcome dance that function at the same time to dispel
sickness and bad spirits.
You need a godfather as an anthropologist to get in. He must introduce the
foreign anthrop to the board. Genocide is rampant in Brazil, and the State
security does not like foreigners poking their noses in their indigenous
policy. At times I was so depressed because of the atrocities that happen to
the tribes.
Rape, torture, murder, you name it. Plain calculated genocide; Just
yesterday, big news
of the Cintas Largas, who took up arms to defend their territory against
gold-panners had to shoot 22 gold seekers. The Xavante followed my every
move and the missionaries' too, but you don't see it or know it. I think
they are afraid one find out things or their secrets.
There could be different options. When I was there, I met the missionaries
of S. I. L. (the Summer Institute of Linguistics), as I told you last time.
They had a small airplane that came there every 2 or 3 months to pick up
their people. Now I am not a plane expert but I think it could have been a
Cessna, but maybe it was a Dakota. There has been also a Korean sect
preaching their religion and they had lots of money and probably an
airplane, the last option is FUNAI, unless some gold mining activity has
been set up and the Garrimpeiros fly in like they did in Roraima on the
Yanomami land in 1991.
Angelo seen in the profile with a palm leaf in his hands participating in
sacred ceremony
If I cannot meet with my chief, whose name is Josué, I may end up meeting
relatives, no problem. Angelo was my neighbour in the village of Santa Cruz
and I saved his baby with penicillin from pneumonia in 1991 only with one
injection.
He is married to Donata and they have one more boy with cataract in the eye,
he is called Roberto. Angelo is the brother of Modesto, who became pastor at
the age of 19 I think.
You can see Angelo in the photo above in a very sacred ceremony in which I
participated. It is called Wai´a and is about getting in touch with the
Xavante Gods. It's about good forces fighting the bad and also initiates new
young warriors.
By the way since November last year I am in touch with a young chief of 29
years old through e-mail. He has had death threats and is hiding in São
Paulo. He is a new breed leader.
I could start with him there. But he has a very busy agenda and lost his
interest as soon as I tried to get in touch with my villagers through him.
He was from the Silesian missionary reservation São Marcos. He is tired of
the Silesians there and is rekindling Xavante tradition in the youths.
There is FUNAI (the Brazilian agency for the protection of Indians) that
could refuse, because in '95, I heard through Medecins sans Frontières that
all development programs and medical aid, had to pass through a selection
board.
Of course I can wait for some of his relatives to show up in the city of
Campinápolis or Nova Xavantina and through their help I might get in again.
But no one as you may know, can stay with a tribe without bringing loads of
presents! That's the big issue.
The Xavante Indians dance in the village of Santa Cruz having among them
Wéré'è dancing in a circle. In the photo, the fifth on the right (as the
photo is seen) is Wéré'è brother-in-law Narciso, and next to him is Josué,
his blood brother.
Why this makes you worry about as long as you can easily find a
way to get the proper presents and deliver to them?
The presents for the Xavante are a big issue for most tribes. They
know they get presents because that's what they received with the first
contacts. It's due to jealousy and envy from other villages who saw that I
channelled water into 2 villages and -though the jealous ones had no problem
with access to water- they also wanted the same channels to be laid out in
their village. It could be over a box full of soap, but some want ammunition
or rifles. Dozens of blankets, shorts, kilos of soap, clothe for the women.
Others demanded gasoline or a truck you name it. That's why I think it will
be hard for me, it has nothing to do with them not liking me or linking me,
it's all about keeping the balance between factions and villages. These
feuds have been passed from generation to generation and I got caught up in
it because I belonged to a faction after my blood brother pact, I suppose.
Giving a t-shirt or a blanket to one is not that much but to a village of
100 people, it doesn't end there. In Barra do Garças and Nova Xavantina I
was constantly being harassed to pay for them in restaurants and so on.
Oyó is a ritual for kids' 6 to 7 year olds and is to test ones strength.
They club each other with a club made of a root. They start at 6 am before
dawn. Brief fights occur, as soon as one cries the opponent 'wins'. Though
winning is a western concept. It is just a way of seeing who will survive in
this habitat of drought and heat. Their villages are built on 800 meters
about sea level, so it can be cold at night. We have adolescents and
children. But the tribe of Xavante have at least 5 or 6 different categories
of divisions in youth. It's so complex!
The Xavante have a reputation of fiery warriors and they are very bellicose,
I experienced it day in day out. Furthermore, I also stayed with the Bororo
on two occasions and I visited the Karaja too. The Silesian missionaries (*)
aren't my best friends anymore after I had an honest interview in the
Gazette of Cuiabá in 1995 on my views on what happens with the indigenous
nations through organized religion. But I have hopes.
(*) The Silesians are members of the Society of Saint Francis of Sales, a
Roman Catholic congregation founded in Turin in 1845 and dedicated chiefly
to education and missionary work.
Bororo
Detail of a mural for Berô Can, indigenous handicraft shop, 1995 Barra do
Garcas, Brazil
By Wéré'è
The Morcegos
There is a tribe in the Serra do Roncador called the bat people
(A tribo dos Morcegos)
Now, I would like to know any information you might have gotten
or heard during your stay in the reserve concerning the existence of the
Morcegos and their approximate location of their territory.
About the Morçegos, it might well be that the Xavante people were
taken for those people. Because that region is vast and just after their
pacification the Xavante scared the hell out of the settlers, the Xavante
killed any white man or Suya or Kalapalo Indian coming near them. They hated
the white especially the ones who had a beard, that's why nowadays most
FUNAI officials are clean-shaven. They hated the bearded ones because the
whites (Silesians, Bandeirantes) they fought and had killed one of them. So,
many stories and rumours led their own life. A saying goes that Xavante used
to wear ape skins and scare people with it. Maybe that's why people talked
about a Morçego tribe, because that tribe has never been found either!
However, they seem to be found in the Serra do Roncador. Wéré'è
has convincingly said to me; they guard the entrance to the caves and the
subterranean cities. They are black skinned people, small and with a more
developed sniffing sense than hunting dogs.
This is what an American explorer, Carl Huni, wrote in a letter.
The entrances of the caves are guarded by the Morcegos Indians, dark-skinned
people with great strength. Even if they let you in the caves, I am afraid
you will get lost for the outside world, because they protect and guard the
secret very carefully and they will not allow those who get in to get out
again. The Morcegos Indians live in caves and come out at night to the
nearest forest, but they have no contact with the people who live below, in
a subterranean city who live in self-sufficient community wit a big number
of people. They believe that those who inhabited Atlantis built the
subterranean cities. Japanese monks who came to bring homage to Mr. Armando
Luvison, and his wife "Vestal" are the only true protectors; guards of the
Serra do Roncador.
Wéré'è also answered some of my questions below such as:
What did the Xavante know about the Morcegos?
They don't like to talk about it.
Did the Xavante have any relation with the Morcegos in the past?
I don't know for sure
Did they have any contact with them?
I need to talk to the elderly. I have no clue but I presume.
