: João Bravo is the most responsible for the changes that has happened at the Village Cinta Larga.

Aldeia Tenente Marques/Espigão do Oeste/RO – Imbedded on the South edge of the State of Rondonia, in the boundary with Mato Grosso, it is located the Reserve Roosevelt, “Sacred land of the Cinta Larga Indians”. The reservation is a large green territory divided in four areas: Indigenous area Aripuanã, Aripuanã Park, indigenous area Roosevelt and indigenous area Serra Morena.

With the extension of 2, 7 million hectares of pure Amazon forest, this area has the size of countries like Belgium or 20 times the size of the city of São Paulo. That large green area in the Parallel call “11” is where it is located the last descendant/*s of Tupis nation. The tribe Cinta Larga had its lands demarcated in the beginning of the seventies, however Brazil only heard about them for the first time after its invasion for thousands of mining people. Invasion that resulted in the massacres of 29 diamond seekers happened in April of 2004, attracting for the area the attentions of the whole planet.

Since the lands’ demarcation, the 1.394 Indians that form the nation Cinta Larga, until now haven’t been included in any helping program of the Federal Government. Abandoned for this long period of time for the absence of the public power, the Indians Cinta Larga were forced to make alliances with organizations that is many times doubtful, to obtain money and to bring the improvements for the tribe.

In the decade of 80, were the lumbermen that invaded the reservation in the secret extraction of the mahogany and of the cherry tree. At the end of the decade of 90 they joined to the diamond seekers and smugglers that are interested in the area. Such area that hides what can be considered one of the largest beds of diamond of the world.

Incalculable wealth

The wealth that sleeps in Roosevelt/*s underground is incalculable. The Reserve Roosevelt/*s lands shelter several kimberlitic rocks, that when springing from the underground, they bring the diamonds from the profundities of the land to the surface. To understand the meaning of that discovered, enough to say that the largest beds of diamond of the world have, each one, an only kimberlitic.

In the period from 2003 to 2004, thousands of diamond seekers, wakened up by the greed of that immense wealth transformed the area in land of anybody. The corruption in the area became endemic, involving diamond seekers, policemen and smugglers, that or associated in the illegal extraction of diamonds, or fought to each other.

Today, the mine is deserted, but if there is a breach, in 24 hours it can be invaded by thousands of “seekers” and “Rodados “, that wait only for the right opportunity to participate in sweeping”. Once inside of the reservation invade the low areas and carven acting as in a programmed assault. They stay there for some weeks; remove millions in stones and leave, leaving behind them a destruction trace and environmental degradation with the ecological devastation of the flora and of the fauna around the mine, without mentioning the pollution and the silting up of the rivers.

That wild race in the extraction of diamonds attracted for the area traffickers, smugglers and the prostitution, generating a tension situation and violence to which the Indians were not used to and that now don/*t want to submit any more. With that wealth to the reach of the hands and so many interests in game the facts are distorted. The indigenous leaderships, to the eyes of the society, became the thieves of the history, but, in fact, for their ingenuousness and the lack of knowledge of the double-dealing of the white, they are deceived by the receivers, for the corrupt public servers and owners of machines.

They act in agreement with their culture, although they seem to be involved with the whites, but the reality is another thing. After the great revolts that happened in the mine during the last years, the Indians seem to have learned with the suffered reverse. The activities in the mine decreased, the Indians now are organized with the appearance of associations and cooperatives for best to administer of their lands and wealth.

Construction of hydroelectric

After years of contact with the so-call world of the whites, new leaderships begin to appear among the Cintas Largas. Among those leaderships the largest prominence is João Bravo, emergent leader of the community Tenente Marques. João Bravo is the responsible for the great changes happened at his village. In 2001 the tribal leader began the construction of a hydroelectric plant in the Rive Roosevelt/*s bifurcations, with capacity to generate 20 CV that supplies electric power for the whole village that is two kilometers from the place.

The whole project of the construction of the plant and more the channel of 110 meters in concrete that takes the water until the house of machines, where it is the generating unit of energy. “That whole work was made by the community, there were no help from the government”, affirmed João Bravo, while pointing to the long concrete channel. When walking to the Village Tenente Marques in the margins of the river, the visitor can prove the countless innovations that were introduced by the indigenous leader.

New houses

The old wood cottages of snip of wood and beating clay covered with thatch that used to form the village, gave place to new wood houses covered with tiles and painted on the green and yellow colors. “Like the colors of the Brazilian flag “, affirms proud João Bravo. They are the innovations that are changing the rhythm of the residents/* life. In that true evolution the community won three landing tracks for small aircrafts and enjoys good highways, linking the village to the other communities. That whole work was executed with the use of tractors and the own indigenous community/*s trucks buckets.

Recently the Cacique João Bravo implanted the fish farming project in the village, with the construction of tanks where 100 thousand larvae were placed. That pioneering project in the indigenous area has as principal objective to assist to the consumption of the population and also the commercialization of the spare production.

The livestock has already entered strong in the lands of the village. Employees were contracted to raise thousands of meters of fence in the brachiaria pastures with the technology of the electrification. Modern corrals were built to facilitate the handling of the flocks that is not done by the Indians, but by herdsmen contracted for the village.

Health and Education

In the health, the leader of the tribe invested in the acquisition of traced ambulance and medicines for the health center. Agents of health contracted make the daily accompaniment of the local population, mainly of the children.

According to risings done by the National Foundation of the Indian (FUNAI), the infant mortality rate in the reservation is zero. In the education, João Bravo fought even with the Government of the State to make possible the construction of a new school for the community. “The governor didn/*t want to build the school. I ordered to arrest a car of Seduc in the village, only after beginning the construction of the school that I liberated the car “, commented the leader of the village.

After that supposed fight for the construction of the new school, a partnership was firmed with the Government of the State, that through the Section of Indigenous Education of Seduc compared the schools in the tribe. Indigenous teachers were graduated and today they are qualified to act in the teaching net, assisting in classroom the whole clientele of the village in school age. With that work driven by the community/*s own teachers, they can maintain their traditions in harmony with the modernity.

Even being knowing of the immense wealth in form of diamonds that rests on his feet, the leader João Bravo, that is known by all as “A very systematic man”, uses that wealth and the leadership that exercises, not to benefit himself, but in projects of well being to the community, which generate the development and the comfort for his community. “Many people say that I am rich, but that is not truth everything here is not mine, it belongs to the community “, defends the old leader.

Lessons to governors

The liberation or not of Reserve Roosevelt/*s mine will be still theme for long discussions in the luxurious cabinets of Brasília, but while the situation is not defined, that emergent indigenous leader proceeds, giving lessons to many rulers of how to administers himself the community/*s resources.

Today João Bravo/*s village has the structure of a true company, generating employment to dozens of employees non Indians that live and work in the community, executing works in different sections that maintain in perfect operation the whole structure of the village. “Here each one has his occupation. When it dawns each one already goes to the service, it is as in any company “, affirmed the herdsman Joaquim Calvacante, that has been there for almost two years in the village.

In spite of that progress that some villages have been getting, the shade of the mine with its wealth and its dangers is a constant threat to that momentary peace that the tribe enjoys. Everybody in the village knows that to defend their lands, their wives and children against the adventurous ambitious people invasion that insist in rounding their borders. The Indians Cinta Larga today just count with the leaders/* courage as João Bravo, who along his 63 years still fights strongly for better days for his people.