Indigenous Rights in Low Tapajós, between the Recognition and the Denial

the case of the Indigenous Maró Land

Abstract

This paper treats about the struggle for the demarcation of the Maró Indigenous Land, in the city of Santarém-Pará, and obstacles faced by Borari and Arapium indigenous to achieve it. Stands out, among the obstacles, a merit judgment of the Federal Court in Santarém, issued in November 2014, who denied legitimacy to self-identify as indigenous of the Maró communities. In this work, try to understand the historical process of self-identification of indigenous peoples of Maró ”“ that is associated with a broader context of ethnic emergence in the Lower Tapajós ”“ and discuss the legal treatment given to these
people by the aforementioned decision of the Federal Court. In this sense, it is taken as a parameter the legal rules of national law and the norms of international law ratified by the Brazilian government to ensure rights of indigenous peoples; especially the Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization.