Abstract
This article deals with the process of making an institution of the Brazilian public administration focused on the attention to indigenous peoples: the Secretariat for Indigenous Peoples of the State of Amazonas (Seind/AM), which operated from 2009 to 2015. It is argued that indigenous public servants perceived this experience as the continuity of a political project that unfolds from the various organizations of the indigenous movement. At the same time that the emergence of the Seind provided access to an unprecedented place in the state structure, being in that position also meant to be in line with a new political universe, and with the particular order and procedures of the state bureaucracy. Based on ethnographic research, the article reflects on the interaction of indigenous and non indigenous actors, and their respective institutions along this process, exploring how different ways of doing politics, conceiving of public administration, and being in the state converge to compose this new indigenous space.
Keywords:
indigenous people; Brazilian public administration; Amazon; indigenous movement