Cinta Larga

Cinta Larga
Total population
1,567 (2010)[1]
Regions with significant populations
 Brazil
(Espigão d'Oeste, State of  Rondônia)[1]
Languages
Cinta Larga[2]
Religion
traditional tribal religion[1]

The Cinta Larga (or Cinturão Largo) are a people indigenous to the western Amazon Rainforest of Brazil, numbering around 1300. Their name means "broad belt" in Portuguese, referring to large bark sashes the tribe once wore. The tribe is famous for shadowing Theodore Roosevelt's Roosevelt–Rondon Scientific Expedition, making no contact.

Language

The Cinta Larga language is a Mondé language, belonging to the Tupi language family. It is written in the Latin script.[2]

History

Since the 1920s, the tribe has often come into violent conflict with prospectors entering the region to harvest rubber, timber, gold or diamonds. In the 1960s, this culminated in the "Massacre at Parallel 11" in which rubber prospectors killed many of the Cinta Larga by throwing dynamite into their village from a plane, and then finishing off the survivors, including killing women and children with particular cruelty. Only two members of the Cinta Larga community survived the massacre.[3][4]

Diamond mine controversy

In 2004 the tribe was responsible for the murders of 29 miners illegally unearthing diamonds in the area. In exchange for an $810,000 community grant from the Brazilian government, the tribe agreed to shut down the mine and refrain from killing intruders. The grant expired in 2007, and the tribe has implied it may reopen the mine.[5]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 "Cinta large: Introduction." Instituto Socioambiental: Povos Indígenas no Brasil. Retrieved 31 March 2012
  2. 1 2 "Cinta Larga." Ethnologue. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  3. ↑ International, Survival. "Why do they hide?". www.survivalinternational.org.
  4. ↑ International, Survival. "'Lost' report exposes Brazilian Indian genocide".
  5. ↑ Rohter, Larry (29 December 2006). "Diamonds' Glitter Fades for a Brazilian Tribe" – via NYTimes.com.

Further reading

  • Millard, Candice. The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey. New York: Doubleday, 2005. ISBN 978-0385507967.


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