Vale do Guaporé/RO – Contacted by Candido Marshal Mariano Rondon, in 1919, the Puroborá people, who lived in an area among São Francisco do Guaporé and Seringueiras cities have already conquered important victories in the fight that comes undertaking since 2002 for the search of the recognition of their etnia.

In 2007, a work group from Funai may give an anthropological award to give course to the process that includes the landmark of the land where Puroborá ancestor had lived. The resources for the work had been enclosed in the budget of the Funai of 2007.

Nowadays, the area is occuped by farmers, but by law it must be returned to the indians, with the payment of indemnities for the improvements found in the region, according to the substitute administrator of Funai in Porto Velho, Osman Brasil.

The recognition of the Puroborá people is supported by the Resolution 069, of the International Organization of the Work, ratified by the Brazilian Government, that gives the right of recognition of remainders of peoples as the indians and that in Brazil also include the quilombolas.

Although the law is clearly about this subject, it is known that the retaken of lands of the Puroborás will not be easy. “We find too much resistance in the region. Beyond attempts of captation of the indians by the farmers, it has already been done death threats so that the indians give up to retake the land”, tell Antonio Evangelista Sansão Puruborá, one of the leaders and articulator of the process of recognition of the people.

According to Osman Brazil, the Puroborás had been expelled from their lands in 1970, when the indian/*s land Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau was created. Three more people, Wajuru, Cujubim and Miqueleno, had also demanded the recognition in Rondônia.