Orlando and his brothers Cláudio (1916–1998) and Leonardo Villas-Bôas (1918–1961) were Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

ian activists regarding indigenous peoples

Indigenous peoples

Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....

.

Achievements

In 1961 they succeeded in getting the entire upper Xingu

Xingu National Park

The Parque Nacional Xingu is located in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil and was created on April 14, 1961, signed by President Jânio Quadros. The area of the park is 2,642,003 ha., and it is contained in the municipalities of Mato Grosso; Canarana, Paranatinga, São Félix do Araguaia, São José do...

 legally protected – the first huge indigenous area in all South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

, and the prototype for dozens of similar reserves all over the continent. Two of the Villas-Bôas brothers, Orlando and Cláudio, were jointly awarded the Royal Geographical Society

Royal Geographical Society

The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...

’s gold medal, as much for their geographical explorations as for their humanitarian work. They also received the GEO prize, delivered by the president of Germany, Richard von Weizsäcker

Richard von Weizsäcker

Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker , known as Richard von Weizsäcker, is a German politician . He served as Governing Mayor of West Berlin from 1981 to 1984, and as President of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1984 to 1994...

, and the Chancellor of West Germany Willy Brandt

Willy Brandt

Willy Brandt, born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm , was a German politician, Mayor of West Berlin 1957–1966, Chancellor of West Germany 1969–1974, and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany 1964–1987....

, in 1984, as a recognition for their humanitarian work.

Pioneers

The British historian, John Hemming

John Hemming (explorer)

Dr John Hemming, CMG is a Canadian explorer and author, expert on Incas and indigenous peoples of Amazonia.-Biography:Hemming was born in Vancouver because his Canadian father, Henry Harold Hemming OBE, MC, had been through the trenches in the First World War, saw the Second coming, and wanted him...

, wrote that the Villas-Bôas were pioneers in many ways. They were almost the first non-missionaries to live permanently with the Indians; and they treated them as their equals and friends. They persuaded tribes to end internecine feuds and unite to confront the encroaching settlement frontier. They were the first to empower indigenous people to run their own affairs. The Villas-Bôas were the first to appreciate the value of politics and the media in furthering the indigenous cause. They also devised a policy of "change, but only at the speed the Indians want".

Robin Hanbury-Tenison, from Survival International

Survival International

Survival International is a human rights organisation formed in 1969 that campaigns for the rights of indigenous tribal peoples and uncontacted peoples, seeking to help them to determine their own future. Their campaigns generally focus on tribal peoples' fight to keep their ancestral lands,...

, wrote that "The Xingu is the only closed park in Brazil, which means that it is the only area in which Indians are safe from deliberate or accidental contact with undesirable representatives of Western civilization. This is due entirely to the Villas-Bôas brothers and the total dedication of their lives to this work over the last 25 years." (Since 1971, when this was written, more indigenous parks and reserves have been created, such as the Tumucumaque Indigenous National Park in northern Pará

Pará

Pará is a state in the north of Brazil. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Roraima. To the northwest it also borders Guyana and Suriname, and to the northeast it borders the Atlantic Ocean. The capital is Belém.Pará is the most populous state...

 state, but the Xingu park remains the most important of them.)

The anthropologist Shelton Davis

Shelton H. Davis

Shelton H. Davis was a Sector Manager in the Social Development Unit, Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development, Latin America and Caribbean Region at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. where he was responsible for the Bank's work on social development, including tribal and indigenous...

 wrote that "The Villas-Bôas brothers further argued that it was the responsibility of the federal government to provide a secure protective buffer, in the form of closed Indian parks and reserves, between Indians and the frontiers of national society. In time, the three brothers believed, Indians would integrate into Brazilian national society. This process of integration, however, should be a gradual one and should guarantee the Indians’s survival, ethnic identities and ways of life."

In the foreword of the book Xingu: the Indians, Their Myths the anthropologist Kenneth S. Brecher wrote that

It is now almost 30 years since the Villas-Bôas brothers (...) led the expedition known as 'Brazil's march to the West' which was intended to open up the heart of the interior for colonization. They were overwhelmed by the beauty and cultural richness of the network of Xingu tribes which they discovered, and when the expedition disbanded they remained in the jungle to protect the Xinguanos from the land speculators, state senators, diamond prospectors, skin hunters, and rubber gatherers who had followed in their wake. (...) That the Xingu tribes continue to exist, in fact to thrive, is due largely to the extreme dedication, intelligence, cunning, and physical strength of these brothers.

Personal lives and deaths

Of the 11 siblings, only the three brothers banded together in their pioneering work.

Orlando died in 2002. When a major chief dies, the Xingu Indians hold a great funerary festival (the Kuarup) in his honour. They did this for Orlando even though he was white. He had two sons, Noel and Orlando.

Claudio was born on December 8, 1916 in Botucatu, São Paulo and died of a stroke in his São Paulo apartment on March 1, 1998. Indians called him "The Father" and by 1994 there were 6000 Indians in 18 settlements from different tribes.
Leonardo died in 1961 at age 43.

Select Bibliography

• Villas-Bôas, Orlando. Interview. In: Amazind bulletin 1. Geneva, Switzerland, aut. 1973, p. 25-29.
• Villas-Bôas, Orlando: Os índios na estrada. In: Cadernos da Comissão Pró-Índio: a questão da emancipação. São Paulo, n.1, 1979, p. 87-88.
• Villas-Bôas, Orlando: O índio – ontem, hoje... e amanhã? In: Tassara, Eda; Bisilliat, Maureen: O índio: ontem, hoje, amanhã. São Paulo: Memorial da América Latina/EDUSP, 1991, pp. 48–56.
• Villas-Bôas, Orlando: A arte dos pajés: impressões sobre o universo espiritual do índio xinguano. São Paulo: Editora Globo, 2000.
• Villas-Bôas, Orlando: Senhor. In: Carlos Jacchieri: Carta Brasil 2000 1°Fórum Nacional da Identidade Brasileira. São Paulo: Imprensa Oficial, 2000a, p. 15-20.
• Villas-Bôas, Orlando: Entrevista. In: Mariléia M. Leal Caruso; Raimundo Caruso: Amazônia, a valsa da galáxia: o abc da grande planície. Florianópolis: Editora da UFSC, 2000b, p. 25-44.
• Villas-Bôas, Orlando: Um povo na ignorância de seu passado. In: Aguiar, L. A.; SOBRAL, M. (Orgs.) Para entender o Brasil. São Paulo: Alegro, 2001, p. 265-271.
• Villas-Bôas, Orlando: Discurso proferido na Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, em 21 de dezembro de 1972.. In: Cristina Müller; Luiz Octávio Lima; Moisés Rabinovici (Orgs.): O Xingu dos Villas-Bôas. São Paulo: Metalivros, 2002, p. 28-29.
• Villas-Bôas, Orlando: Rompendo fronteiras. In: Cristina Müller; Luiz Octávio Lima; Moisés Rabinovici (Orgs.): O Xingu dos Villas-Bôas. São Paulo: Metalivros, 2002a, p. 146-164.
• Villas-Bôas, Orlando: Discurso proferido em 1974, na Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso. In: C. Figueiredo: 100 discursos históricos brasileiros. Belo Horizonte: Editora Leitura, 2003. p. 413-420.
• Villas-Bôas, Orlando: História e causos. São Paulo: FTD, 2005.
• Villas-Bôas, Orlando: Trinta e cinco anos de assistência e pesquisa: a Escola Paulista de Medicina e o Parque Indígena do Xingu. In: Roberto Geraldo Baruzzi; Carmen Junqueira (Orgs.). Parque Indígena do Xingu: saúde, cultura e história. São Paulo: Terra Virgem, 2005a, p. 49-57.
• Villas-Bôas, Cláudio. Saving Brazil’s stone age tribes from extinction. In: National Geographic Magazine. Vol. 134. n.o. 3. set. 1968, p. 424-444.
• Villas-Bôas, Cláudio; Villas Bôas, Orlando. "Xingu: Os índios, seus mitos" Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 1970.
• Villas-Bôas, Cláudio; Villas-Bôas, Orlando. "Xingu: the Indians, their myths" New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1973. ISBN 978-0285647480
• Villas-Bôas, Orlando: Os Juruna no Alto-Xingu”. In: Reflexão. Instituto de Ciências Humanas e Letras da Universidade Federal de Goiás, 1970a. p. 61-87.
• Villas-Bôas, Orlando: Território Tribal. In: Maureen Bisilliat; Orlando Villas Bôas und Claudio Villas Bôas: Xingu: território tribal. São Paulo: Cultura Editores Associados, 1990, p. 13-33.
• Villas-Bôas, Orlando: Memórias de Orlando e Cláudio Villas Bôas. In: Darcy Ribeiro. Carta: falas, reflexões, memórias – informe de distribuição restrita do Senador Darcy Ribeiro. Brasília: Gabinete do Senador Darcy Ribeiro, 1993, vol. 9., p. 187-203.
• Villas-Bôas, Orlando: A marcha para o oeste: a epopéia da Expedição Roncador-Xingu. São Paulo: Editora Globo, 1994.
• Villas-Bôas, Orlando: Almanaque do sertão: histórias de visitantes, sertanejos e índios. São Paulo: Editora Globo, 1997.
• Villas-Bôas, Orlando, Claudio Villas-Bôas, *Alvaro Villas-Bôas: Antigamente o índio nos comia. Agora somos nós que estamos comendo o índio.. In: Revista de Cultura Vozes - Política Indigenista no Brasil. Petrópolis: Vozes: 1976. n. 3, ano 70, p. 209-219.

External links

• Villas-Bôas Brothers (Agencia Estado)