The article examines the way in which images of Waimiri-Atroari Indian leaders are being used to publish messages through the midia which counter criticisms directed at the implantation of large-scale hydroelectric schemes in Indian areas and the highly nocive consequences for the Indian nations affected. The images support the policies of the electric sector to implant more hydroelectric schemes in the Amazon region which incide on Indian territories. This strategy has been used, above all, after the demonstrations in Altamira in 1989 against a complex of hydroelectric dams in the valley of the River Xingu which would affect dozens of Indian villages, and the mobilization of the Indian political movement in recent years.
Indians; images; leaders; Waimiri-Atroari; hydroelectric schemes; company policies