Indigenous Peoples and Conservation Organizations

The Xavante in Central Brazil 49
a tributary of the Xingu) in the eastern part of
Mato Grosso State on six reserves (see maps 4.1
and 4.2): Areões, São Marcos, Sangradouro,
Parabubure, Marechal Rondon, and Pimentel
Barbosa. With 329,000 hectares, Pimentel
Barbosa is the largest of the six reserves and currently
encompasses five communities (see map
4.3). Etéñiritépa (also known as Pimentel Barbosa
and Posto Indigena Rio das Mortes in official government
communications), is the original settlement
from which Caçula, Tangure, and
Pe’adzarupré have splintered since the 1980s. The
residents of Agua Branca are refugees waiting to
recoup their former territory in the area of the Suiá
Missú River to the north, which will become a
seventh reserve known as Marawaitsede.
The landscape is cerrado: savanna, with gallery
forest along riverbanks. Elevation is between
300 and 400 meters. There is a relatively short
dry season from May to August, and a rainy
season with average precipitation of 1,750 millimeters.
Fluctuations may be considerable,
however, with yearly rainfall ranging 15–20 percent
from the norm and short dry spells that
unpredictably punctuate the rainy season
(Flowers 1983). Most cerrado soils are moderately
to highly acidic; low in nutrients; and high
in aluminum, toxic to most crops. To make the
soil arable requires considerable addition of fertilizer
and lime. The Xavante’s former seminomadic,
hunter–gatherer lifestyle was well
adapted to this environment.
Map 4.1 Location of Xavante Reserves in Mato Grosso State
Map by John Cotter in Graham 1995. Reproduced with permission of the University of Texas Press.