The fight goes on over land claims

Brazilian Kayapo Indigenous people looking on during Brazil’s Supreme Court vote. — Reuters

HUNDREDS of Xokleng indigenous people gathered around a screen in Ibirama-La Klano territory in southern Brazil recently to watch the supreme court vote on indigenous land rights.

The crowd erupted into cries and ritual dancing as the judges blocked, with nine votes to two, an attempt backed by the country’s big agribusiness sector to stop indigenous people from claiming land they did not physically occupy prior to 1988.