REMINISCENCES OF A DOCTOR IN LIVING WITH AMAZONIAN AND CENTER-WEST INDIAN PEOPLE DURING 55 YEARS (1965-2020): Translated by FRED SPAETI

De JOÃO PAULO BOTELHO VIEIRA FILHO

The author of this book is a Doctor of Clinical Endocrinology, from the Federal University of São Paulo, an adjunct professor, preceptor and researcher at the Diabetes Center of the same University.
His extensive curriculum includes a hundred scientific articles, 26 papers presented at Medical Congresses, 98 technical papers, 36 papers on social networks, blogs or websites; 23 media presentations (interviews, round tables, programs and comments).
But what stands out in the life of this active physician is his presence among the indigenous peoples of Brazil, since 1965: Dr. João Paulo provides medical assistance and supports the indigenous populations, contributing to their health and survival. He assists the Xikrin, Xavante, Paracanã, Suruí, Parkatėjê, Karipuna and Palikur populations, located in the Amazon and Center-West.
The scientific production of this doctor and researcher is almost entirely focused on indigenous health.
He was the first doctor to mention diabetes mellitus as an epidemic and pandemic, among Brazilian Indians, and to describe the association between genetic and environmental factors.
He was also the first to start vaccinating the Suruí and Gavião populations, against tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, childhood paralysis, measles and smallpox; the first to vaccinate against measles Brazilian Indians in the Amazon, below the Equator.

• Idioma: Português
• Editora: Editora Kelps
• Data de lançamento: 1 de fev. de 2021
• ISBN: 9786558591733

Pré-visualização do livro

JOÃO PAULO BOTELHO VIEIRA FILHO

REMINISCENCES OF A DOCTOR IN LIVING WITH AMAZONIAN AND CENTER-WEST INDIAN PEOPLE DURING 55 YEARS (1965-2020)

Translated by FRED SPAETI

Goiânia – Go

Kelps, 2020

Copyright © 2021 by João Paulo Botelho Vieira Filho

Editora Kelps

Rua 19 nº 100 — St. Marechal Rondon- CEP 74.560-460 — Goiânia — GO

Fone: (62) 3211-1616 - Fax: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail] / homepage: www.kelps.com.br

Diagramação: Marcos Digues

[e-mail]

Photo of the cover: Assurini of Xingu, 2012 (by Alice Kohler)

Back cover: Fred Spaeti (book translator) in Xikrin Cateté, 1970 (by João Paulo)

CIP - Brasil - Catalogação na Fonte

DARTONY DIOCEN T. SANTOS - CRB-1 (1ª Região) 3294

V658 | Vieira Filho, João Paulo.

Reminiscences of a doctor in living with Amazonian and center-west Indian People during 55 years (1965-2020). - João Paulo Botelho Vieira Filho - Goiânia / Kelps, 2021

ebook (Epub) - il.

ISBN:978-65-5859-173-3

1. Cheers. 2. Indigenous. 3. Medicine. 4. English.

CDU:613.9-111

DIREITOS RESERVADOS

É proibida a reprodução total ou parcial da obra, de qualquer forma ou por qualquer meio, sem a autorização prévia e por escrito dos autores. A violação dos Direitos Autorais (Lei nº 9.610/98) é crime estabelecido pelo artigo 184 do Código Penal.

Impresso no Brasil

Printed in Brazil

2021

To Maria de Siqueira Schurig Vieira,

with affection.

Acknowledgements

I recognize gratefully the help provided by Fred Spaeti in Portuguese-English translation and Maria Virginia Mattos in the edition of the book, and also thank to Manoel Henrique da Fonseca Sirin by glossary translation from Brazilian Portuguese to English.

INDIGENOUS TRIBES ASSISTED BY THE

DOCTOR JOÃO PAULO BOTELHO VIEIRA FILHO:

1- Xikrin indians Cateté, 2- Gaviões indians, 3- Suruí indians Sororó, 4- Assuriní indians Xingú, 5- Araweté indians, 6- Parakanã Apyterewa indians, 7- Karipuna, Palikur, Galibi indians Uaçá, 8- Xikrin indians Bacajá, 9- Nambiquara indians, 10- Xavante indians Sangradouro, 11- Bororo indians Meruri, 12- Xavante indians São Marcos, 13- Awá indians, 14- Parakanã indians Lontra, 15- Carajá indians

16- Cinta Larga indians, 17- Suruí Mondê Aripuanã, 18- Assurini indians Trocará, 19- Galibi indians Oiapoque

List of Abreviations and Acronyms

PRESENTATION

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

1. SURUI INDIANS (AIKEWARA)

2. GAVIÃO INDIANS (PARKATEJË AND KYIKATEJË)

3. XIKRIN INDIANS (PUT-KARÔT)

4. PARACANÃ AWAETÉ INDIANS

5. GUAJÁ OR AUWÁ INDIANS

6. MEDICAL ADVISORY SERVICES

7. KARIPUNA, PALIKUR AND GALIBI INDIANS OF THE UAÇÁ RESERVE

8. INCOMPRENSION OF MEMBERS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION IN FRONT OF THE BORORO INDIAN DEATH CULTURE (ORÁRI MÓGO-DÓGE) - A LITTLE TANATOLOGY OR STUDY OF DEATH WHICH MUST BE RESPECTED BY ALL OF US

9. MY CHILDREN

10. VIOLENCE AND AUTHORITARIANISM IN CONTACT WITH THE INDIANS

11. INDIGENOUS SURVIVAL

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

GLOSSARY

The author of this book is a Doctor of Clinical Endocrinology, from the Federal University of São Paulo, an adjunct professor, preceptor and researcher at the Diabetes Center of the same University.

His extensive curriculum includes a hundred scientific articles, 26 papers presented at Medical Congresses, 98 technical papers, 36 papers on social networks, blogs or websites; 23 media presentations (interviews, round tables, programs and comments).

But what stands out in the life of this active physician is his presence among the indigenous peoples of Brazil, since 1965: Dr. João Paulo provides medical assistance and supports the indigenous populations, contributing to their health and survival. He assists the Xikrin, Xavante, Paracanã, Suruí, Parkatėjê, Karipuna and Palikur populations, located in the Amazon and Center-West.

The scientific production of this doctor and researcher is almost entirely focused on indigenous health.

He was the first doctor to mention diabetes mellitus as an epidemic and pandemic, among Brazilian Indians, and to describe the association between genetic and environmental factors.

He was also the first to start vaccinating the Suruí and Gavião populations, against tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, childhood paralysis, measles and smallpox; the first to vaccinate against measles Brazilian Indians in the Amazon, below the Equator.

More recently, in 2011, he instructed the Xikrin of the Kakarekré Indigenous Association to make an unprecedented gesture of preventive medicine, vaccinating 9- and 10-year-old girls against the Papillomavirus (HPV).

He is currently engaged in defending the Xikrin do Cateté indigenous land, which has been suffering heavy metal pollution as a result of mining at Vale’s Onça Puma plant.

The life lesson that Dr. João Paulo leaves for his readers is as simple as it is authentic:

The message I convey is for the quality of care, for the kindness, for the humane treatment of the most needy Brazilians.

My relatives, friends and clients have always shown interest in my travels to the indigenous areas. They asked with insistence about the indians and how I survived the difficulties of Amazonia. They claimed that they did not understand my interest in traveling to distant, dangerous and unhealthy places.

I avoided answering so many questions, because I thought it was hard to make me understood. My answers to so many questions were diverted to the health of the indians and their survival.

For 50 years I did not expose my experience among the indians, replying that i had published more than 136 medical scientific works on indians and more than 57 with health guidelines to the Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, the World Bank, and other institutions.

After 50 years, I decided to report all episodes which I kept in my memory, considering their historical value in such difficult times, the struggle for the survival of the indians Xikrin, Suruí, Gaviões, Paracanã, Guajá, Karipuna, Palikur and Galibí of Eastern Amazonia, the passage between the Nambiquara, Suruí of Rondônia and Cinta Larga of the Roosevelt River.

I decided to describe the sensitivity of individuals committed to the life and promotion of the indians, the insensitivity of others committed to profit or indifference, even prejudice towards our nationals.

The experience of assisting the health of the indians, helping them in survival, the commitment to them, has become a feeling of having been useful in life, of having behaved with humanity with those who have few friends, of having been good, like my parents and grandparents have always recommended it to me.

I was recognized as a family member of the Xikrin, part of the family of shaman Atoro, my father, from Bekuipure, my mother, being constantly recalled by my brothers, nephews, and brothers-in-law. Djaoro always reminds me that she is my grandmother. I feel like I belong to a large family, since my paternal great-grandmother is a direct descendant of Chief Tibiriça, patriarch of the city of Sao Paulo, buried in the crypt of the cathedral. I belong to the 13th generation of Tibiriça, which has thousands of descendants in São Paulo.

Perhaps the love for indigenous peoples and the identity with them is in fragments of my DNA, or in the education I received and in the examples of mypaternal and maternal grandparents, beneméritos of São Carlos, Jacareí and São Paulo.

This publication is a testimony of the events I have witnessed, of my intervention - always for the health and survival of the indians - during 55 years. The analysis and description of the events are consistent with my medical training.

The message I convey is one of the quality of care, of kindness, and of a human contribution for the most needy Brazilians.

It all started when a relative (cousin Carlos Meira Mattos, then advisor to the Brazilian Embassy in La Paz) invited me to see Bolivia. It went there with my sister Chiquita and a cousin, Iara.

I was very sensitive to the misery of the Bolivian indians: exploited and marginalized, however they kept their costumes, their food habits.

At that time the president of Bolivia was Victor Paz Estenssoro.

But my first trip to Brazilian Indigenous areas was in July 1965, through understandings of Dr. Monteiro de Barros, of the Association for the Development of the Araguaia Valley (ADEVA), with Dr. Roberto Baruzzi, of the Escola Paulista de Medicina. We traveled by plane from the National Aereo Mail (CAN).

We left São Paulo and stayed overnight in Nova Xavantina, we saw the Rio dos Mortes and indians Xavante at the airport. Next we headed to the Xingú National Park, being received by Orlando Vilas Boas and Kamaiurá indians. We saw the Culuene River. We headed to the Bananal Island, Santa Isabel, hosting us at the wooden presidential house (Alvoradinha) where President Juscelino Kubitschek had been staying. We stayed overnight in this place. We attended Carajá indians in the so-called hospital, which most resembled a health care center.

In Santa Isabel, I and two other doctors from the Paulista School of Medicine were finally transported to the airport, after lunch offered by the Administrator of the Central Brazil Foundation. We almost lost the plane because of this administrator, who was drunk and started to threaten with a revolver my companions (J.,W.) who had not realized the threat and danger, insisting that the vehicle take us to the airport, since we listened to the engine of the plane. I asked the alcoholic what he wanted from my fellow doctors, since the only problem pointed out was the fact that they were shirtless; he, under threat of his weapon against the two, said he would not give the driving and that we would go on foot. Between losing the plane and losing my life, I urged my comrades to walk to the airport. Fortunately the plane waited for us. Using the planes radio, we communicated the incident.

We flew to Conceição do Araguaia, in the State of Pará, where we went to serve regionals in a small hospital, run by the excellent bishop Dom Luiz Palha.

This first experience of working with the indians of my country was compromitted by the authoritarian way in which our participation was conducted.

Then appeared Friar Gil Gomes Leitão. This Dominican friar worked on the prelature of Conceição do Araguaia, and came to São Paulo to seek donations. In the church of the Lapa neighborhood he asked my cousin Ophélia Barrico de Souza to get a doctor willing to go to the villages to treat the indians.

Ophelia contacted me and introduced me to the one who became one of the best friends I had, an excellent missionary who took care of the Suruí, Xikrin and Gavião indians.

My first contact with the Surui Indians of southeastern Pará took place in July 1966. I made a tiring trip from São Paulo to Tocantinópolis, today state of Tocantins, via Goiânia, with Friar Gil Gomes Leitão. In Goiania, I went to see the Lar Santa Gertrudes, maintained by the famous Eunina (Sanina) Hermano and the priest Eduardo Lemaître, Belgian. Eunina Hermano belonged to a traditional Goian family with possessions, having raised and educated over 200 orphans who called her mother. Father Eduardo obtained donations in Belgium to the house of St. Gertrudes, a leper treatment facility, and the Xikrin Indians because there were four orphaned Xikrin girls at that home. One of the Xikrin girls was Ingrei-Kori, whom Queen Fabiola of Belgium received at her palace in Brussels. Nhiok-beiti and Kokonotore were the other Xikrin girls. There was also an orphan Guajá (Potira), a Javaé boy (Simuniá) and his sisters (Sidy and Dikuriá). The orphans had no parents or uncles to care for them. Friar Gil had brought in the four orphans of the Xikrin and an orphan of the Gavião because of the danger of their death in the villages. The three Javaé were delivered to the home by their father, Idjoriwê, following the death of his wife, by measles, on the bank of the Araguaia River in the municipality of Crixás. Idjoriwê died in drowning a year after delivering his children to Gojânia.

From Goiânia we went to Brasilia, from Brasilia to Tocantinópolis, on the Belém-Brasília road which was still unpaved. We traveled from Brasilia to Tocantinópolis during three days and three nights, in much dust and with brief stops for meals of the food we encountered and very short time for a bad bath, with a waiting line. I was stricken with tiredness, irritation, lack of sleep and told my friend Friar Gil that I