The Y

The Yanomami

A Walk Through History

The 1990's

Present Day

The 1970's

The 1950's

Throughout the decade rising political turmoil surrounding illegal mining within Yanomami land saw the brazilian government proposed to create three sections of land legal for mining. after international scrutiny this proposal was shut down. After pressure from the United Nations, Venezuela and Brazil officially set boarders for what is legally Yanomami land in 1991,

During the 1970's the Yanomami saw a whole new set of challenges brought on not only by neighboring nations but from the citizens within. In 1973 the Brazilian government began the construction of a highway that would cut straight through designated Yanomami land. Despite protests both from the people's and from allied organization construction continued. as a result of the construction several Yanomami communities were almost completely wiped out from more illness brought by the workers. The northern perimeter highway was eventually abandoned mid construction in 1976

Directly following the Initial contact with the Yanomami peoples The brazilian government's Indian Protection service set up guard posts surrounding their area of land from try and prevent too many outsiders from coming into contact with them. This however did not stop the Catholic and Protestant churches from sending missionary to the region in attempts to convert them to their religion. during this time the Brazilian and Venezuela governments were trying to decide who would take responsibility for these people's ultimately deciding that they may decide to identify a certain nationality or as neither if they choose

Even in 2020 the idea of harmful contact has still not settled in the minds of the Brazilian and Venezuelan government. During the Covid-19 outbreak these governments instead of leaving the semi-isolate tribes alone allowing them to likely never come into contact with the illness, they chose to personally send missionary type teams to find the hidden communities and give them masks. This has obviously raised many concerned voices from the Yanomami spokespeople who are angered at the seemingly thoughtless idea to further expose the indigenous groups still suffering from other diseases brought by the same government.

The Haximu massacre

New settlers,New problems

Why is this Significant

Fixing their Mistakes or making it worse?

In mid-june of 1993 at least 16 possibly as high as 40 innocent Yanomami men,women and children were slaughtered by illegal gold miners. These miners came for the purpose of driving the Yanomami away sol they could dig in their village. when they would not leave they killed them with machetes and guns. these same miners were not caught or charged and came back the very next day to try and repeat what took place. eventually only five of the killers were charged and sentenced in 1996.

Not long after the Yanomami were discovered their land was found to be extremly rich in important minerals such as ore and gold. Not long after miners and their families began settling down in the areas directing outside on Yanomami land. These miners began to illegally extract their lands. This not only greatly damaged the Yanomami's lands but the miners often started conflicts with the Yanomami which often turned violent . these miners would shot at them and dystroy any village in their way. Between the late 1970's and early 1980'd over 20% of the Yanomami population dieds as a direct result.

The building of the northern perimeter highway shows the deep rooted lack of respect that the government has for e indigenous peoples. Despite their right to own that land written into Brazil constitution the government still selfishly went ahead and not only decimated the land but also reintroduced an already struggling population to infection

Upon seeing the destruction being done on the Yanomami peoples caused by the diseases exposed to them from the Brazilian government. during he 1950's permanent medical posts were established throughout Yanomami land to try and aid the growing crisis while provides a reliable source of manufactured goods. However, these posts were often their own sources of further outbreaks and the more reliant the Yanomami became on the manufactured products, the more contact the had with the pathogens

This photo taken by a researcher shows a Yanomami woman with her three children at one of the brazilian established medical posts

Gold miners illegally mining for ore and gold on Yanomami Land

1940

2020

The 1940 's

The 1980's

The 20o0's

The 1960's

In the 1940 initial contact between the Yanomami and the outside world was made by the Brazilian government who were in the forest to finalize boarders with Venezuela

Throughout the 1980's political disputes continued to escalates no only from the Yanomami themselves but from international organizations recognizing the unfair treatment of the indigenous peoples. In 1980 the organization Survival International submit a formal complaint to the Organization of American states against the Brazilian government for their treatment of the Yanomami. In 1982, Survival International presenting a case against the Brazilian government to the United Nations on behalf of the Yanomami people.

During the 60's academic interest in the Yanomami grew drastically and studies of the people's everyday lives and everything that made them unique begin to be conducted. in 1968 Dr.Kenneth Taylor, an anthropologist began to conduct fieldwork and began living among the Yanomami in an attempt fully understand their culture. During this time he and his colleague raised warning flags about the abuse from the Government sanctioned guard posts. These issues went as for as the United Nations whom condemned the Brazilian government for allowing a borderline massacre of the Yanomami

Despite constant political backlash the governments of Brazil and Venezuela time and time again fail to properly handle crisis surrounding illegal mining of Yanomami land. In 2003 new colonist tried to settle and used harmful slash and burn farming techniques. these techniques have caused permeate damage to the natural vegetation and have caused the land to become dry. this has lead to an outbreak of deadly wildfires in the region. These governments while publicly voicing their support for the Yanomami systematically fail to actually help them in their fight for fair treatment. In fact in took over 40 years for the Government to finally return the viles of blood wrongfully stolen from the Yanomami peoples in 2010.

The History of the Region

The Initial rewards and impending Consequence's

This image depicts where in the modern day the Yanomami reside in relation to both Brazil and Venezuela. The people's are not limited by the Countries boarders and have free will to travel as they please in the forest

Like many Indigenous tribes before them the Yanomami were view as a abnormality to the people of Brazil and Venezuela. they were viewed as uncivilized and as soon as they were contacted governments made moves to establish research posts and to provide them with goods such as pots and pans in return. the discovery of the Yanomami people gave way to a huge boom in the research being conducted surrounding indigenous peoples and it reminded the world they they are real and are more then just a story.

In the late 15th century modern day Brazil and Venezuela were conquered by the portuguese and the Spanish respectfully. The two country's ruled by the battling crowns often found themselves in disputes over land rights specifically the Amazon forest. During the 1940's while attempting to finally resolve the border disagreement the Yanomami would be contacted for the first time

Poisoning the Yanomami Peoples

An Established military Presence

Damaging Their Health

The positive coming from the negtive

Blood Sample Dispute

The Yanomami traditionally stayed within the forests highlands which provided a milder climate and a abundance of water. This also saw a decreased risk of disease such as malaria. that was until initial contact. Like many indigenous tribes before, contact brought with it new dieases that the people's had never before been exposed too. These illnesses such as Malaria, whooping cough and measles ran rampent among the small Yanomami communities and to this day the people's have not recovered and make up a large amount of cases

This study shows how even today the Yanomami have not recovered from the Disease brought during initial contact

The Mining on Yanomami land is not only about respecting boarders but the practice is directing harming the people's. Due to the Harmful mining practices often utilized by the illegal workers mercury has severally contaminated major water sources for the Yanomami Peoples. The mercury has poisoned not only the water itself but the fish that the Yanomami relies on as well.

IN 1985 the first of many military bases was built on Yanomami land for the supposed reasoning being to mediate conflicts between the illegal miners and the Yanomami. However, these bases did little to calm tensions and often worsened the situations. Multiple claims against these bases have come out about military members prostituting Yanomami women and disrespecting their villages

In 1967, blood samples from the Yanomami people's were taken in the name of biomedical research. however, the extent of this research was unbeknownst to the Yanomami people who do no believe in the preservation of the body or belongs of a deceased loved one. International debate broke out at the Yanomami demanded that the blood samples be returned as they were not properly informed that these samples would be stored for decades, questions surrounding the scientific ethics of the samples have been discussed since the day they were taking and still remain a hot topic in the anthropological world today

Throughout the 60's the Yanomami peoples faced massive discrimination directly from the governments supposedly there the help them. Additionally, scientists and anthropologists have been debating over the Yanomami's right to their own blood. However, it light of these atrocities several groups aimed at protecting the rights of not only the Yanomami but all indigenous groups have emerged. Most notibly the Survival international that aims to keeping the endangered cultures of the international indigenous people's alive. This organization has worked tirelessly to their fight to keep the voice of the indigenous people's alive.

Why do the Blood Samples Matter

In the Yanomami culture , nothing of a persons belongings or body is preserved after death. It is believed that of these items were to remain then their soul would not be able to cross into the next life as a part of them would still be connected to their former self. The issue surrounding the blood samples is that the Yanomami were never fully informed about what they were doing. they were never told that these samples would be stored and frozen for decades. As a result of these frozen samples they believe that those who have since passed will never be able to cross over to the next life until those samples are returned to the earth.

Depicted is scientist collecting samples of Yanomami hair to test for trace amounts of Mercury, a report should that of the participants test almost all of them tested positive for higher then normal levels of Mercury

The Negative Impacts of Contact

The positive effects to contact

The consequences of contact have been just as prevalent if not more so then the positives when thinking about the Yanomami people's relationship with the outside world. To begin contact from the very beginning caused serious harm to the Yanomami. new diseases and evading people brought the Yanomami down and made thier populations take a massive hit. Positionally, as a result of this since the Yanomami people;s are separated into different communities all around the forest each having their own stories and structure, the disease brought by supposed allies actively helped complete destroy whole communities and cultures. Finally, upon their discovery the survival of the Yanomami while completely isolated proved to the Neighboring governments the the forest was rich with minerals and resources. this discovery would obviously lead to the massive deforestation for the forests and the illegal and unethically mining within the regions

While extremely recent in comparison to the contact of other indigenous groups the outsider contact with the Yanomami peoples has in some ways been beneficial even if these benefits only arouse from negatives. For example the Yanomami before contact were not familiar long lasting tools such as pots and pans. most of their food was eaten raw or cooked using a banana leaf. After contact with the Brazilian governments and utilities posts providing metal pots and pans the Yanomami were able to drastically reduce the amount of stress on their bodies from digesting raw foods. Additionally, another positive stemming from contact is the Creation of the Survival international activism group. while this group originally formed in response to negative contact it has since grown to help multiple tribes all over the world. Finally, due to their location at the heart of the Amazon forest, their existence has helped raise important questions about the effect humans are having on the environment and have helped further the discussion on ethically mining and farming practices