Motira and Soewá Suruí at sunset, 1987
Language: Mondé
Cacoal, State of Rondônia, Brazil

The semi-nomadic Suruí were forced to become sedentary when they were allocated land by the Brazilian government. More recently, they have become involved in community-based ecotourism, building their traditional long houses for tourists to visit.

Suruí Girl
Language: Mondê
Rondonia, Brazil

Zoró mothers and babies, 1987
Language: Mondé
State of Mato Grosso, Brazil

Some decades ago, there were constant invasions and appropriation of the Zoró land by miners, lumbermen and farmers. In 1986, the Zoró entered into confrontation with the land invaders and many people were killed.

Rubber tapper's daughters, Dora and Neiga Barbosa, at their house in the Seringal, 1987
Amazon Forest near Xapuri,
State of Acre, Brazil

The rubber tappers migrated from the Northeast of Brazil to harvest the rubber tree (seringueira). In 1985, the rubber tappers founded their own National Council and, led by Chico Mendes, originated the idea of government-owned extractive reserves, devoted to sustainable use of the rain forest by rubber tappers and indigenous people.

Close view of rubber tapper's daughters, Dora and Neiga Barbosa, 1987
Amazon Forest near Xapuri
State of Acre, Brazil

At the end of the 19th century, the first wave of immigrants came to the Brazilian Amazon, in response to the North American and European demand for rubber. Over the course of the next 100 years, as the rubber price rose and fell in the world market, rubber tappers, employed on plantations, eked out a living extracting latex from rubber trees.

Zoró Boy and Girl
Language: Mondé
State of Rondônia, Brazil

Zoró Girl With Her Pet Monkey
Language: Mondé
State of Rondônia, Brazil

Deforestation due to logging and cattle ranching has destroyed the Amazon ecosystem at the rate of 13,000 acres a day, about eight football fields a minute, during the past decade. This rate of devastation is accelerating.

Kayapó babies, 1989
Language: Jê
State of Pará, Brazil

In indigenous societies painting of the body is one of most important cultural expressions. They take a long time to prepare and paint markings, which carry social significance.

Kayapó boys playing with plastic cars, 1989

Language: Jê
State of Pará, Brazil

The body painting is done exclusively by the women in this tribe. They paint their kids' bodies from the time they are born. They use Urucum seeds for the red color, and Jenipapo fruit for black.