The Yanomami Indigenous people havelaunched a campaignto kvetch out thousands of gilded miners from their demesne in the Brazilian Amazon .
An estimated 10,000 to 20,000 illegal Au miner have place up shop in Yanomami Park , one of Brazil ’s crowing indigenous reserves , near to the molding of Venezuela . Gold mining has go on to shake up the autochthonous demesne since the 1980s , but now the Yanomami fear the outsiders are increasing the spread of Covid-19 among some of their community .
In a statement given to IFLScience , Survival Internationalhas enjoin that tribal leaders of the Yanomami and the National Human Rights Council have recently submitted a request to the Inter - American Commission on Human Rights to order the Brazilian political science to oust the gilded miners from Yanomami land . A tribunal has ruled that the Brazilian government ’s indigenous agency FUNAI has to re - open its protective cover posts in the Yanomami territorial dominion .
However , it remain uncertain whether these steps will really lead to meaningful government activity .
“ For many years we have spoken to all the authorities , who already eff about our position , we have even denounced it at the UN , but so far no one has give us any answer , ” Dario Yanomami , of the Hutukara Yanomami Association , suppose in a statement provided to IFLScience .
“ They [ the mineworker ] are contaminating our rivers with mercury , digging big hole in our land , killing our animals and our environs . Our health is very uncollectible from drink water supply contaminated by the mining .
“ I am fighting for my grandparents , for the recognition of our the great unwashed . ”
The Yanomamiare a group of approximately 35,000 endemic people that live in the rainforests and flock of northerly Brazil and southerly Venezuela . They inhabit a hunter - collector lifestyle that also utilize shifting cultivation . Most Yanomami people are in contact with non - indigenous society , although they are still mathematical group that stay isolated and uncontacted .
In the past few decade , non - indigenous society has put increase pressure on the Yanomami . A golden rush in the eighties fetch Brobdingnagian number of mineworker to the area , along with a tragical amount of dispute . In 1993 , a group of miner entered the village of Haximú andmassacred 16 Yanomami people , including a baby , eventually resulting in five miners being found guilty of race murder .
“ We have suffer a lot from the encroachment of gold miners since the seventies and eighties . The miners have bolt down us , including our children , as if we were animals . Our population has diminish by approximately 22 percent , ” added Dario Yanomami .
Recent age have realise a resurgence of gilded miners , result in further destruction of land as well as mercury contamination of the rivers and local animals . Numerous reportson Yanomami communities in the mining part have spotlight shocking rates of quicksilver poisoning .
A recent reportalso warned that thousands of Yanomami could also be at risk of contracting Covid-19 due to illegal mining activity in confining proximity to their settlements . So far , at least three Yanomami people have died from Covid-19 and tons havebeen infected . The Brazilian government has also set up a military barracks in the Yanomami heartland . According to Survival International , women from some kin have been solicited for gender work by the soldiers and have been put at risk of undertake sexually transmitted disease .
To apply further pressure on the government , the Yanomami have also help toset up a petitionasking President Jair Bolsonaro ’s government to expel the miners from their territory . The orison already has 270,094 signature , smashing their target area of 100,000 signatures .
