Joy Harjo's Web Log

Hey, Joy, I never met Floyd but your post is beautiful and I’m sure he will travel well.
I just wanted, as a Brazilian (citizen, writer), to say that I never heard of such a thing as businessmen engaging hunting expeditions to kill native people.
Native Brazilians were killed mostly during the Portuguese colonization. They died from disease, slavery, massacre, were banished, exiled and “assimilated”. There were 5 million of them back in 1500. Today they are less than 300,000 – living in pieces of land that the government established for them. 60% of these are in the Amazon region.
They have a miserable life and struggle to keep alive traditions that are fading away (including their 165 different languages).
Sometimes fights occur between farmers and some of the tribes, concering the possession of lands, and many of these native Brazilians die. But, again, I never heard of businessmen expeditions to hunt and kill these people.
All the best,

Adriana Lisboa
www.adrianalisboa.com.br
http://caquiscaidos.blogspot.com/