Indians Face Off vs. Police with Bows and Arrows Before Brazil Congress

BRASILIA – Dozens of Indians protesting against a bill proposing to alter the regulations for marking their reservations faced off against police, whom they attacked with bows and arrows, in front of the Brazilian Congress on Tuesday.

The Indians, with painted faces and festooned with feathers tried to enter the legislative headquarters but were kept back by a police cordon, resulting in several incidents that concluded without any injuries, despite the fact that the demonstrators began to use the bows and arrows they were carrying.

One of the arrows fired by the Indians hit a police officer’s shoe and split the sole, but he was not injured.

The bill that sparked the protest has been pending since 2000 in the lower house of Congress and, after being shelved for almost 12 years, it was dusted off two years ago and approved in several legislative committees.

Its most controversial aspect proposes that authority to mark new indigenous lands, which currently resides with the executive branch, would pass to Congress.

The Indians oppose that move and say that it would give more power to the large landowners and mining, lumber and other firms that operate in the Amazon region, where most of the country’s Indian reservations are located.

Those businessmen maintain tight links with lawmakers of the so-called “rural bench,” a group comprised of upper and lower house members from different parties who defend in Congress the interests of the country’s large landowners.