Original South Americans

Currently, in the Amazonian indigenous reserves there are around 170 thousand ‘known’ Indians and we also know there are at least 53 groups of isolated Indians beyond contact with ‘our civilisation’. They are the survivors of native ethnicities in the Amazon. There is evidence that the first inhabitants of the Amazon have been living there since around 10 thousand years before christ. 500 years ago, it was estimated there were more than 6 million indigenes, mostly in the Amazon. There are now around 300 thousand in all of Brazil, in other words, about 5% of the descendent population from when the Amerindans and the Portuguese first came into contact.

                There are similar comparative studies revealing shocking estimates in anthropological, historical and geographic sciences from all around the heart of this astounding continent. Most revealing on European colonisation techniques are the disparities between how the Portuguese and Spanish tried to make new territorial strongholds in South America. While the Dutch, French and the English should not be completely ignored their effect on this continent was negligible in comparison. It is through reading, analysing and extrapolating from Iberian historical documents we are capable of estimating the destructive force of the peninsula’s tirades in both the central and southern Americas.

                With IBAMA and other national institutions representing indigenous power, including within national governments representing their peoples internationally there is a contemporary shift in who is making the plans for South America’s future with Ivo Morales leading the charge. Astoundingly, it is only now in the second decade of this millennium that there are multilingual leaders representing not only indigenous peoples but additionally their nations and on a more open and fair basis for international development. With so many fallen heroes, successful freedom fighters and now, with executives and presidents in power, there is greater hope that those historical injustices can be laid to rest while the rural and urban people of South America can move forward with improved confidence in their representative political systems. With respect and tolerance it most definitely is possible to share the wonders of this blessed land.