<a href="/actnow/writealetter/ayoreo">Write a letter</a> to the Paraguayan parliament using Survival's online letter-writing tool.
"Donate":/donate to the Ayoreo campaign (and other Survival campaigns).
"Write a letter":http://www.writetothem.com/ to your MP or MEP (UK).
"Write":http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/ to the President, your senators, congressmen or other elected officials (US).
Write to your local Paraguayan embassy (you can find their address through "embassiesabroad.com":http://www.embassiesabroad.com/)
DFCD83
Bulldozers move in on isolated Indians' heartland
true
The Ayoreo-Totobiegosode Indians live in the Chaco, a vast expanse of dense, scrubby forest stretching from Paraguay to Bolivia and Argentina.
Their territory has been bought by land speculators and ranchers and is now being rapidly cleared.
The Ayoreo-Totobiegosode Indians live in the Chaco, a vast expanse of dense, scrubby forest stretching from Paraguay to Bolivia and Argentina.
Their territory has been bought by land speculators and ranchers and is now being rapidly cleared.
&ot<strong>How do they live?</strong>
The Ayoreo
live in the north-west of Paraguay and part of eastern Bolivia. There
are different sub-groups of Ayoreo, including the Totobiegosode (whose
name means 'people from the place of the wild pigs').  The Ayoreo
are a nomadic, hunter-gatherer people, who once inhabited a
vast area of scrub forest. Their first sustained contact with white
people came in the 1940s and 1950s, when Mennonite farmers established
colonies on their land. Subsequently missionaries attempted to contact
and settle them. Although the Ayoreo resisted contact and largely
rejected the missionaries, they did begin to come out of the forest;
there is now only a small group of nomadic Totobiegosode living
uncontacted in the forest. Most Ayoreo land is now owned by private
landowners, who hire work-teams to clear the forest of valuable timber
and then introduce cattle. Some is still owned by the Mennonites and
another religious group, the US-based New Tribes Mission (NTM). <br />
<strong><br />
What
problems do they face?</strong> During the 1970s and 1980s, the Ayoreo
experienced intensive missionary activity, as the NTM pursued a policy
of aggressive attempts to convert them. They would encourage groups of
missionised Ayoreo to go into the forest to capture the uncontacted,
nomadic Ayoreo, their traditional enemies, and bring them back to the
NTM base. This resulted in violent clashes and several deaths as the
Indians were exposed to diseases to which they had no immunity at the
mission camp. The Ayoreo also suffer greatly from the theft of their
land - although the Paraguayan constitution guarantees Indian land
ownership, the Ayoreo's land has almost all been taken over by
ranchers, forcing them out of their forest and making it very difficult
for them to support themselves. <br />
<br />
<strong>How can I help?<br />
</strong>Click <a href="/how_to_help.php?howto_help_id=1; target="_self">here</a> to donate to the Ayoreo campaign (and other Survival campaigns).<br />
Click <a href="/actnow/letters/ayoreo" target="_self">here</a> for a sample letter to send to the Paraguayan parliament.<br />
Click <a href="/how_to_help.php?howto_help_id=28" target="_self">here</a> to sign Survival's Ayoreo petition.<br />
Click <a href="http://www.writetothem.com/" target="_blank">here</a> to write a letter to your MP or MEP (UK).<br />
Click <a href="http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/" target="_blank">here</a> to write to the President, your senators, congressmen or other elected officials (US).<br />
Write to your local Paraguayan embassy, click <a href="http://www.embassiesabroad.com/" target="_blank">here</a> to find out the address.<br />
<br />
<strong>How does Survival help?</strong> During the
1970s and 1980s, Survival campaigned strongly for the NTM to abandon
its dangerous attempts to contact and convert Ayoreo Indians; this
activity has now largely stopped. But the Ayoreo are still vulnerable
until their land rights are recognised. The contacted Ayoreo have
submitted a legal claim to much of their territory on behalf of their
relatives still in the forest, which Survival is supporting. Survival
is moreover urging the Paraguayan government to comply with its own
constitution and with international law by recognising Ayoreo land
ownership rights.
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The Ayoreo are one of around 18 different tribes living in Paraguay. The Ayoreo's home is in the Chaco, a huge region of dry scrub forest, rivers and swampland which encompasses the whole of the western half of Paraguay and extends into other countries.
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/images/tribes/16_map.jpg
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the Ayoreo
http://bit.ly/mK82v
ayoreo
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Ayoreo
2009-10-08T10:53:20+01:00