The Tapeba are one of 15 Indigenous ethnic groups in Cear\u00e1 state. They live in the municipality of Caucaia, in the Fortaleza metropolitan area. There are 8,010 Indigenous people, in 17 villages which lie within the 5,294 hectares of the Tapeba Indigenous Land. One of the Tapeba\u2019s land conflicts is with the Arruda Coelho family, who are among the Caucaia elite. The family alleges to own a farm inside the Indigenous Land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to one Tapeba, Jo\u00e3o Kennedy, the struggle for the Tapeba land began in the 1980s, when their leaders spoke out to claim that there were Indigenous people in Cear\u00e1. The National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) responded in 1985, by initiating studies for the identification and delimitation of the Indigenous Land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1997, the first declaratory order for the Indigenous Land was issued. However, the Caucaia Municipal government, led at the time by Jos\u00e9 Gerardo Oliveira de Arruda Filho, contested the order, alleging that the municipality had not been convoked to participate in the demarcation process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It wasn\u2019t until 2001 that the National Indian Foundation established a new team to continue the demarcation. In 2006, the Circumstantiated Identification and Delimitation Report of the Indigenous Land was published. In 2017 the declaratory order was issued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Arruda family remained in power during this period. In fact, Gerardo Arruda\u2019s wife, In\u00eas Arruda, became mayor. Once again, the municipality fought the demarcation using the same allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This made it necessary to initiate a new phase in the struggle. In 2010, another team resumed the demarcation study. Since, at least for the time being, the Arruda family no longer held control over the municipality and the new mayor had good relations with the Indigenous people, there was no further interference from the municipal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2013, a new declaratory order was issued. However, the Arruda family filed a new suit, not on behalf of the municipality, but as individuals holding land in the Indigenous Land. Thus, the Tapeba\u2019s struggle against the Arruda family reignited and a negotiation process began that ended with the Tapeba having to give up 10% of their land. This process, which involved many meetings, took about a year. The Indigenous people who lived in the village of Ponte were the most affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the process, Paj\u00e9<\/em> [shaman] Raimunda, the Tapeba\u2019s top leader, decided it was better to complete the demarcation than to continue fighting for the entire area, and announced he would cede the 10%, equalling 544 hectares. In 2015, an accord was reached with the Caucaia municipal government, the Cear\u00e1 state government, the Public Defender, the Public Ministry, and the Justice Ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to information from Instituto Socioambiental, \u201cThe agreement provides for the recovery of lands along the Cear\u00e1 River, the relocation of Indigenous families who are currently in risk areas, a sewage system, the construction of schools, houses and health clinics,\u201d as well as the construction of access routes to the river and the roadway, allowing travel to other communities. It was also agreed that the demarcation would proceed quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite this, the declaratory order wasn\u2019t issued by Justice Minister Torquato Jardim until 4 September 2017. This was a victory for the Tapeba, but the struggle isn\u2019t over. The physical demarcation of the area still must be completed, and the approval decree signed by the president of Brazil, before the area can be cleared and good faith improvements paid for by a number of squatters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Links:<\/p>\n\n\n\n ASSOCIA\u00c7\u00c3O PARA DESENVOLVIMENTO LOCAL CO-PRODUZIDO. [2018]. Tapeba. Available at: http:\/\/adelco.org.br\/centro-documentacao\/terra-indigena-tapeba\/. Accessed: 15 Mar. 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ASSOCIA\u00c7\u00c3O PARA DESENVOLVIMENTO LOCAL CO-PRODUZIDO. 2019. Situa\u00e7\u00e3o dos povos ind\u00edgenas do Cear\u00e1. Fortaleza. Available at: http:\/\/adelco.org.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Livro_Diagn%C3%B3stico.pdf. Accessed: 31 Oct. 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n SOUZA, Oswaldo Braga de. 2017. Terra Ind\u00edgena Tapeba (CE) \u00e9 a primeira declarada pelo governo Temer. S\u00e3o Paulo, Instituto Socioambiental, 5 set. Available at: https:\/\/www.socioambiental.org\/pt-br\/noticias-socioambientais\/terra-indigena-tapeba-ce-e-a-primeira-declarada-pelo-governo-temer. Accessed: 15 Mar. 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Tapeba are one of 15 Indigenous ethnic groups in Cear\u00e1 state. They live in the municipality of Caucaia, in the Fortaleza metropolitan area. There are 8,010 Indigenous people, in 17 villages which lie within the 5,294 hectares of the Tapeba Indigenous Land. One of the Tapeba\u2019s land conflicts is with the Arruda Coelho family, … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"coauthors":[22],"class_list":["post-1070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conflicts"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umoutroceu.ufba.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umoutroceu.ufba.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umoutroceu.ufba.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umoutroceu.ufba.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umoutroceu.ufba.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1070"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/umoutroceu.ufba.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1230,"href":"https:\/\/umoutroceu.ufba.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions\/1230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umoutroceu.ufba.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umoutroceu.ufba.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umoutroceu.ufba.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1070"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umoutroceu.ufba.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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