Abstract
In 1967, the Service of Indian Protection (SPI in Portuguese), Brazilian indigenist institution, was living its last days. Tormented by political and criminal investigations and scandals, the military in power seized the situation to extinguish the SPI and reform the indigenism under their geopolitical and strategical purposes. In those last moments, Alberto Pizarro Jacobina, an old indigenist, published five texts in the O Globo journal (between 7th and 12th of October 1967), traying to defend and justify the memory of the SPI, as well as its material and symbolic legacy. Using theses texts as trigger, this paper analyzes the SPI’s historical challenges and problems in the contemporary Brazilian context, seen thru the eyes of a person who dedicated his life to the romantic “rondonian” indigenist project.
Keywords
Service of Indian Protection; indigenism; indigenous question; Brazil; memory