The Cinta Larga (or Cinturão Largo) are a people
indigenous
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention
*Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band
*Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
to the western
Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...
of
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, numbering almost 2,000. Their name means "broad belt" in
Portuguese, referring to large bark sashes the tribe once wore. The tribe is famous for shadowing
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
's
Roosevelt–Rondon Scientific Expedition
The Roosevelt–Rondon Scientific Expedition ( Portuguese: Expedição Científica Rondon–Roosevelt) was a survey expedition in 1913–14 to follow the path of the Rio da Dúvida ("River of Doubt") in the Amazon basin. The expedition was jointl ...
, 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
The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern ...
.
[
]
History
Since the 1920s, the tribe has often come into violent conflict with prospectors entering the region to harvest rubber
Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...
, timber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...
, gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...
or diamond
Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, b ...
s. In the 1960s, this culminated in the " Massacre at 11th Parallel" 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 that Cinta Larga community survived the massacre.
It is believed the plane made a first pass over the village, dropping sugar to lure a crowd to the central plaza. Then, it swooped in low to drop the dynamite on the assembled Cinta Larga. The bodies were buried in the riverbank, and that village was abandoned forever.[''The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon's Lost Tribes'', First Edition, Crown Publishers, United States, 2011, p. 227-228]
Diamond mine controversy
In 2004 the tribe was responsible for the murders of 29 miners illegally unearthing diamonds
Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, ...
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.
Notes
Further reading
* Millard, Candice. '' The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey''. New York: Doubleday, 2005. .
Ethnic groups in Brazil
Indigenous peoples in Brazil
Indigenous peoples of the Amazon
{{Brazil-ethno-group-stub