They want to live what is called a sustainable existence, meaning they use the land without doing harm to the plants and animals that also call the rainforest their home. As a wise Indigenous man once said, “The earth is our historian, our educator, the provider of food, medicine, clothing and protection. She is the mother of our races.”(11) Indigenous peoples have been losing their lives and the land they live on ever since Europeans began colonizing 500 years ago. Most of them died from common European diseases which made Indigenous people very sick because they had never had these diseases before. A disease such as the flu could possibly kill an indigenous person because he/she has not been exposed to this disease before. Many Indigenous groups have also been killed by settlers wanting their land, or put to work as slaves to harvest the resources of the forest. Others were converts to Christianity by missionaries, who forced them to live like Europeans and give up their cultural traditions. Until about forty years ago, the lack of roads prevented most outsiders from exploiting the rainforest. These roads, constructed for timber and oil companies, cattle ranchers and miners, have destroyed millions of acres each year. All of the practices force Indigenous people off their land. Because they do not officially own it, governments and other outsiders do not recognize their rights to the land. They have no other choice but to move to different areas, sometimes even to the crowded cities. They often live in poverty because they have no skills useful for a city lifestyle and little knowledge about the culture. For example, they know more about gathering food from the forest than buying food from a store. It’s like being forced to move to a different country, where you knew nothing about the culture or language. Indigenous groups are beginning to fight for their land, most often through peaceful demonstrations. Such actions may cause them to be arrested or even to lose their lives, but they know that if they take no action, their land and culture could be lost forever. Kaypo Indians, for example, recently spoke to the United States Congress to protest the building of dams in the Amazon, and were arrested when they arrived back in Brazil, accused of being traitors to their own country. In Malaysia, the Penean have arrested for blocking logging roads. Many people living outside of rainforests went to help protect the Indigenous people’s culture. They understand that Indigenous people have much to teach us about rainforests. Since we (the US and other countries) have been working with the Indigenous People and other rainforest protection agencies, we have learned many things about the forest, including it’s ecology, medicinal plants, food and other products. It has also showed us how crucial it is for the Indigenous people of the rainforest to continue their daily and traditional activities because of their importance in the cycle if the rainforest. It has shown us that they have the right to practice their own lifestyle, and live upon the land where there ancestors have lived before them. (2) One such example of a invasion of the Ingenious people’s privacy is a new so called “emergency” ;called the Cofan Emergency. This dispute is about an Indigenous tribe called the Cofan. Historically, the Cofan occupied some half a million acres of rainforest along the Aguarico River in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Because their traditional territory has been significantly reduced through invasions by oil companies such as Texaco, the Cofan now live in five small, discontinuous communities. However, they still utilize and protect a region of about 250,000 acres, including two reserves in the Amazon. In addition to displacing the Cofan and other indigenous groups, oil development, which began in this region over thirty years ago, has also caused serious environmental destruction. The deforestation of some two million acres of rainforest and contamination of the regions waterways has resulted in the loss of plant and animal diversity, and drastically affected the social and economic well-being of local Indigenous peoples. This devastation continues. Last year, ten new concessions were licensed to international oil companies in the Ecuadorian Amazon, opening an additional five million acres of forest to oil development. One of these oil blocks, Block 11 awarded to the US-based Santa Fe Energy, lies within Cofan territory and will directly affect at least three communities.
