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05/11/2005:

"Brazilian chief calls for tools to help save land from 'white man'"

The chief of an Indian village in a remote area of Brazil yesterday unveiled the shopping list of basic equipment that could help him save a traditional way of life almost destroyed by agribusiness and forest clearance.

"We are fighting for the survival of our people and our language and culture," said Kuissi, of the Kisedje people, during a visit to the University of Manchester. "We can't say what the future is going to be like."

Kuissi and two colleagues have left Brazil for the first time to tell their story in Britain and Germany and explain that just £60,000 could make all the difference to the lives of their people.
The wishlist includes a tractor, a pick-up, a radio, solar equipment, an aluminium boat, an outboard motor and a computer. "We need the money to buy white man's tools to be able to recover the land from the white man's destruction."

The Kisedje were first contacted by white explorers in 1959 and moved to protected land in the Xingu Indian Park. But the people were not vaccinated and numbers dropped to 62. The population has now recovered to 378 people, all of them speaking their own language. They are also back on most of their homelands.

"We never forgot our village," Kuissi said. "We never imagined that the forest would be destroyed by the white people."
Full:guardian.co.uk