Tarnished Gold: Illegal mining stokes Indigenous divisions

By SAM COWIE
Associated Press

RAPOSA SERRA DO SOL INDIGENOUS TERRITORY, Brazil (AP) — Relentless pressure from the rapid growth of illegal gold mining in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest is stoking long-standing divisions in local Indigenous communities about the best path forward for their collective well-being.  Some local leaders see gold mining as a potential boon for the area that could bring jobs and investments. Others see the mining as defiling the land on the reserve by polluting the waters, stripping bare the land, as well as upending centuries-old cultural traditions. One Indigenous leader said that the illegal mining operations on the reserve were financed by local businesspersons and politicians who were the owners of the equipment needed to extract the gold from the ore.