Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Development in the Amazon

Abstract

This article deals with some contemporary issues related to indigenous peoples in Brazil, particularly in the Amazon. It encompasses the current demographic situation, the recent history of rights achievement that allowed them to reverse the process of extinction, of which they had been victims for centuries, as well as the serious challenges that indigenous peoples face today in Brazil and in the Amazon, due to a model of development that has been effect since at least the 1950s. Besides, in the light of these historical aspects, we finally establish some parameters about the role that indigenous peoples can play in another model of development, attentive to the future and focused on the respect for the public good.