The Amazon's Indian wars.

Earlier this month, foes of a proposed Indian reservation blocked roads leading to Boa Vista, capital of the Amazonian state of Roraima, and occupied the offices of the agencies for federal agrarian reform and Indian affairs. The dispute has polarised Roraima. It also sheds light on wider struggles between environmentalists and enthusiasts for traditional culture on one side, and advocates of economic growth on the other. The trigger is the impending declaration by Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, of a new indigenous territory covering eight percent of Roraima, which means removing the non-Indian population of several villages and a small town, plus several large rice plantations. For decades, the area's 15,000 Indians have been trying to reclaim their land from miners and farmers, who brought drink, dirt and prostitution. The idea of putting parts of the state off limits to non-Indians seems unBrazilian to many. Yet some Indians are among the most vociferous critics of the reservation in its proposed form. The reservation's supporters claim that these critics are in the pay of the rice planters, but critics say that the church and NGOs are foisting on them a simplicity and isolation Indians no longer want.