In spite of their territory being demarcated, the Bororo of the Jarudori land are obliged to live scattered amongst other lands of their people, because their traditional area has been invaded by land-grabbers. Indigenous people and organizations in Mato Grosso have got organized and demand the removal of the non-indigenous people who live in all the Jarudori land and in about 40% of the Teresa Cristina land, both of which have traditionally been occupied by the Bororo people. The decision to remove these people depends on the National Foundation for Indigenous People (Funai).

The expulsion of the Bororo began at the start of the last century. Jarudori is a part of the lands demarcated by Marshal Rondon, in 1912, and occupies approximately 100,000 hectares. During the 1930s, the region was used for the installation of agricultural colonies, with incentives that were part of the March to the West Program, and the division of the land into lots intensified after the 1960s. Other areas were invaded by prospectors. In 1945, the State of Mato Grosso created the Jarudori Indigenous Reservation, reducing the area demarcated by Rondon to 6,000 hectares. The land was reduced further when it was registered, with only 4,706 ha remaining.

Invasions, violence and epidemics – tuberculosis and measles – have contributed to the exit of many of the Bororo families that used to live there. The municipality of Poxoréu was created in 1958 and there is, nowadays, a village with 2,605 inhabitants which is also called Jarudori.

The Jarudori land is not only important for the indigenous people who will be able to return there to live, but also to all of the Bororo population, because it is an important coordination point between the “lower Bororo” who live in the Pantanal (swamplands), and the “upper Bororo”, who live in Meruri, Garças and Rio das Mortes.

On 28 June, a seminar entitled “The Boe-Bororo People: the Traditional Land and the Rights to the Tereza Cristina and Jarudori Indigenous Lands” will be held in Cuiabá (MT), with the participation of Bororo representatives, the Federal District Attorney and the Coordinator of the 6^th Chamber, Dr. Deborah Duprat, the anthropologist who wrote the report identifying the land, Prof. Edir Pina de Barros, and Funai, through the guest Artur Mendes Nobres, who is in charge of Land Affairs. The meeting, which begins at 8:30 am, has the goal of mobilizing civil organized society and making it aware of the Boe-Bororo’s land issues.

Brasília, June 14, 2006