SAO PAULO, Brazil — A Brazilian Indian chief is telling authorities that the recent massacre of 29 diamond miners on their reservation was “just a warning” of what is to come if others try to prospect on their reservation.
Speaking somewhat matter-of-factly about the deaths of the men, Chief Pio of the Cinta-Larga tribe said the miners were killed because they did not heed the tribe’s warning not to encroach on reservation land.
“This was just a warning,” said Chief Pio, adding that the tribe is tired of miners illegally extracting diamonds from their ancestral lands.
“The people that came onto our land knew that it was illegal.”
The chief did not, however, admit that members of the tribe were guilty of the gruesome slayings, although he practically confirmed federal police suspicions of tribal involvement with his rhetoric against the miners.
According to the newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo, Chief Pio will be one of two Indian leaders called by federal police to testify in the coming week as to what happened on the reservation.
Even though authorities are just now unraveling the facts of the slayings at Roosevelt, the controversy over mining on reservation land is an ongoing one.
The soil of the northwestern state of Rondonia, where the Roosevelt reservation — named after U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, who once visited the area — is located, is believed to contain rich gem deposits. Its reputation has lured hundreds of wealth seekers in the last few years, despite federal laws prohibiting mining on Indian land set aside by the government.
Some tribes have been caught selling safe passage to diamond hunters wanting to explore the soil of their reservations. Last month, police arrested 15 non-Indians accused of working with tribal chiefs to smuggle diamonds off the reservation.
Others tribes take it upon themselves to excavate diamonds. The Cinta-Larga are among those accused of illegally prospecting for diamonds on their own land.
The bloodshed at Roosevelt has prompted calls for the legalization of diamond mining on Indian land. Proponents say it would put an end to the violence and create more jobs in a country where unemployment has reached 12 percent.
Details of the Rondonia killings have put the mining issue on page one of Brazilian media, particularly the horrific details of the miners’ deaths. The bodies of 26 were found in mid-April. A week earlier, three butchered bodies were discovered — one of the victims with his eyes gouged out.
Federal authorities are not taking sides on the issue yet, but have warned the Indians they will be tried for the killings if the evidence points toward their involvement.
Mercio Pereira — head of Brazil’s National Indian Foundation, a federal agency — said on Thursday that Indians are not immune from the laws and “can be punished” if found guilty of the slayings.
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