However, until about forty years ago, the lack of roads prevented most outsiders from exploiting the rainforest and entering indigenous territories.
Since then many indigenous groups have also been killed and driven off by settlers wanting their land, or enslaved to work in sugar plantations or mines. This disaster was repeated again when Europeans explored Oceania. Unknowingly, the first European explorers to what is now called Latin America brought diseases such as small-pox, measles and even the common cold to which Europeans had developed varying degrees of immunity but to which indigenous peoples had no immunity at all since none of them had never been exposed to these diseases before.Īs a result of those encounters, over ninety percent of the native peoples died from diseases that today we regard as minor and even then were fatal to only a small fraction of Europeans. She is the mother of our races."Ī: Indigenous peoples have been losing their lives and the land they live on ever since Europeans began colonizing their territories 500 years ago. As a wise indigenous man once said, "The earth is our historian, our educator, the provider of food, medicine, clothing and protection. They 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. Q: Why is the forest so important to indigenous people?Ī: Indigenous people revere the forest that, until the present, has protected them from outsiders and given them everything they need. The land becomes a wasteland after a few years of overuse, and cannot be used for future agriculture. However, with the growing number of non-indigenous farmers and the shrinking rainforest, other groups, especially in Indonesia and Africa, are now forced to remain in one area. Shifting cultivation is still practiced by those indigenous groups who have access to a large amount of land. This land is traditionally allowed to regrow for 10-50 years before it is farmed again.
They then move to a nearby uncleared area. After a few years, the soil has become too poor to allow for more crops to grow and weeds start to take over. Then they plant many types of plants, to be used for food and medicines. First they first clear a small area of land and burn it. Indigenous man hunting in the Amazon Q: What do they find to eat?Ī: Besides hunting, gathering wild fruits and nuts and fishing, Indigenous people also plant small gardens for other sources of food, using a sustainable farming method called shifting cultivation.
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