Fundação Nacional dos Povos Indígenas
The Fundação Nacional dos Povos Indígenas (Portuguese pronunciation: [fũdaˈsɐ̃w̃ nasjoˈnaw dus ˈpɔvuz ĩˈd͡ʒiʒenɐs], lit. 'National Indigenous People Foundation') or FUNAI is a Brazilian governmental protection agency for Amerindian interests and their culture.
"FUNAI" redirects here. For other uses, see FUNAI (disambiguation).Agency overview
Original founding as Indian Protection Service[edit]
In 1910, the Indian Protection Service (Serviço de Proteção ao Índio), or the SPI, was founded under the leadership of Brazilian Marshal Candido Rondon.[1] Rondon created the foundation's motto: "Die if necessary, but never kill." Drawing from his Positivism, Rondon led the SPI with the belief that the native Indians should be allowed to develop at their own pace. With state assistance and protection, Indians would eventually integrate into modern society.[1][2] The SPI then began its mission to "pacify" Indian communities by setting up posts in their territories to foster communication and protection.[1] Efforts were initially met by opposition and hostility from Indian groups; there were reports of SPI agents being attacked and shot by arrows.[3] During the 1950s and 1960s, following the death of Rondon, the SPI's officials became corrupt. In 1967, the officials were accused of sexual perversion, abuse, and the massacre of entire tribes by introducing diseases and pesticides, leading to an international outcry for the disbandment of SPI.[1][4] Following this disbandment, FUNAI was created to take over SPI's responsibilities and remedy the damages caused by corruption.
Early years[edit]
FUNAI was created by Law No. 5,371, under jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice and headquartered in Brasilia.[5] On 19 December 1973, Law No. 6001 officially placed Indians under the protection of FUNAI through the Indian Statute.[1] The Indian Statute, while aiming to demarcate all Indian lands by 1978, also had the main goal to integrate Indians into society as soon as possible, so that the Amazon and its people could start contributing economically to Brazilian society.[6] Protection from a government agency is important for Indian populations, but this also means that FUNAI, as a part of the government, has authority to act contrary to the welfare of the Indians.[7] For example, the Indian Statute permitted mining on indigenous lands; a decree in 1983 restricted mining to minerals necessary only for national defense and security, but still allowed private companies to have licenses and use indigenous labor if necessary.[8][9] Also, in the early 1970s, FUNAI president General Jerônimo Bandeira de Mello approved the plan for a highway that would run through Brazil's Amazon to Peru's frontier.[6][7] This highway granted access to the previously inaccessible interior of the Amazon, allowing government and private agencies to use it for their advantage. The highway led to the relocation and extermination of many indigenous tribes by the government and other private agencies, and logging along the highway directly led to deforestation along the affected parts of the Amazon.[9][10] Sydney Possuelo was one of the sertanistas/explorers sent to find and relocate the tribes living along the path of the highway. Possuelo and other sertanistas were disturbed by the number of indigenous deaths their contact caused, and met in 1987 to try to stop it. Possuelo's efforts greatly influenced FUNAI's change in policy from "pacification" and integration to preservation.[11]
Contact with isolated tribes[edit]
The Central Department for Isolated Indians and Recently Contacted Indians is a division within FUNAI to handle dealings with isolated indigenous tribes. Article 231 of the 1988 Constitution expresses indigenous peoples' rights to preserve their culture, traditions, and customs; since contact with mainstream society could jeopardize isolated tribes' culture, FUNAI undertakes efforts to maintain these tribes' isolation.[12] The CGIIRC division is responsible for protecting areas with known isolated tribes from outside contact, since outside contact could spread disease within indigenous communities.[12][13] The department is present in 12 regions of Brazil's Amazon region, and almost all of Brazil's known uncontacted tribes reside within already demarcated lands.[13] FUNAI has records of about 107 isolated Indians' presence.[12]
Changes under President Jair Bolsonaro[edit]
The former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has expressed his determination to increase the economic exploitation of Brazil's resources and to increase commercial mining and farming on indigenous reserves.
Within hours of taking office in January 2019, Bolsonaro made two major changes to FUNAI: He moved FUNAI from under the Ministry of Justice to be under the newly created Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights, and he delegated the identification of the traditional habitats of indigenous people and their designation as inviolable protected territories − a task attributed to FUNAI by the constitution – to the Agriculture Ministry.[27][28][29] Several months later, Brazil's National Congress overturned these changes.[27]
According to Al Jazeera, in February 2019, several indigenous organisations reported to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on violence exerted against indigenous communities including homicides, stonings, deforesting, threats and arson.[30]
In July 2019, Bolsonaro appointed Marcelo Xavier da Silva, a federal police officer with strong connections to agribusiness, as the new president of the FUNAI. Silva was also nominated but not confirmed as an aide to Nabhan Garcia, a senior agriculture ministry official and president of an agribusiness lobby. According to The Guardian, former FUNAI president Gen Franklimberg de Freitas has said that Garcia "froths hate" for indigenous people and that he sees FUNAI as "an obstacle to national development".[31]
In April 2020, FUNAI authorized the registration and sale of land on unratified or unregistered indigenous territories. This could affect 237 reserves in 24 states. However, in June 2020 the state attorney general of Mato Grosso put in a bid for annulment. He called the authorization a dereliction of FUNAI's own mission.[32]
Second presidency of Lula da Silva[edit]
In his first act of government, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva issued the Provisional Measure No. 1,154, of 1 January 2023, which created the Ministry of Indigenous People, and also renamed the Fundação Nacional do Índio (National Indian Foundation – FUNAI) with the name of Fundação Nacional dos Povos Indígenas (National Indigenous People Foundation), in addition to linking this foundation authority to the newly created ministry.[33]
On the same day, Sônia Guajajara, a federal deputy elected for São Paulo in 2022, became the first indigenous woman to hold a ministerial position in the Brazilian government, when she was appointed as a minister.[34]