Word: yanomami
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Dates: during 1990-1990
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Isolated from outsiders until the early 1900s, some 24,000 Yanomami still dwell in Brazil and Venezuela. They live in doughnut-shaped communal homes, have no written language, wear no clothes, use rudimentary tools and subsist by hunting, fishing and cultivating a variety of crops, including sweet potatoes and bananas...
...gold rush, which began in 1987, has been devastating. The garimpeiros have denuded large tracts of forest, poisoned rivers with mercury and introduced numerous diseases. Since the miners' arrival, more than 1,500 of the 10,000 Brazilian Yanomami have died. Most succumbed to malaria, tuberculosis and venereal disease, as well as malnutrition brought on by a dwindling supply of fish and game. "They gave us rice and wheat, but then we got sick," says a Yanomami named Saba, who is recuperating from tuberculosis. "They pretended to be our friends, but they are killing...
...government's assault on the miners seems to be working. Since May, gold production in the area has dropped almost 70%, and many local dealers have closed their operations. Moreover, the Yanomami are starting to regain their health. In Paapiu village, for example, where the malaria infection rate surged from zero to 90% after the garimpeiros came, only 10% of the Indians are now affected...
...their long-term prospects are still clouded. Some of the evicted miners are setting up shop on Yanomami land in Venezuela. The Yanomami can only hope that both Venezuela and Brazil will follow through on their promises to preserve the Indians' land in protected parks...
...Brazilian government tries to drive gold miners from the remote Amazon homeland of the Yanomami Indians by dynamiting clandestine jungle airstrips...