Pictures: A River People Awaits an Amazon Dam

A Marked People

Photograph by Cristina Mittermeier

The Kayapo are known for the elaborate designs they paint on their faces and bodies. The designs, which range from geometric patterns to simple stripes, generally in black or red, express life stages and natural powers including muscular strength, sexuality, and sensory abilities. The red dye this mother is painting on her daughter's face in the village of Kuben Konkre is made from the seeds of urucu fruit, which is gathered in the forest. The Kayapo also pluck out their eyebrows and eyelashes. Women often shave the hair from their foreheads.

(Related: "Innu Nation Trades Reparation for River Power")

A relatively isolated people, the Kayapo have long faced threats to their land from encroaching ranchers, loggers, and gold miners. In addition to diverting the flow of waters on the Xingu, dam construction will bring roads and a large influx of workers to the area, which could dilute the unique culture of the Kayapo, Belo Monte critics say.

The Kayapo fight against the dam has found international support from celebrities including Sting and filmmaker James Cameron, who is a National Geographic explorer-in-residence. The avid environmentalist and director of the film Avatar has traveled throughout the region that would be affected by the Belo Monte project. He has said the struggles of the indigenous people here have inspired his work on an Avatar sequel.

(Related: "Amazon Opportunity: Brazil Doesn't Count on Carbon Market")

A Brazilian court last month cleared the way for the Belo Monte project to begin without further consultation with indigenous people. But news reports said work had been slowed by labor unrest.

Published December 12, 2011

A Veiled Future

Photograph by Cristina Mittermeier

Waterfalls like this one on the Rio Pequeño form during the rainy season and draw children from the village of Kubenkrankje out to play. The Belo Monte dam would flood more than 120,000 acres (48,560 hectares) of rain forest, and would divert nearly the entire flow of the 1,230-mile (1,979-kilometer) Xingu River.

The Kayapo people Mittermeier photographed live hours upstream from the Belo Monte site. Their land will not be flooded, but it is unclear how changes to the flow of the river will affect fish stocks. It is also unclear how long the Kayapo region will remain untouched.

(Related: "Brazil Ethanol Looks to Sweeten More Gas Tanks")

The Brazilian government plans to invest heavily in hydroelectric power and build more than 60 large dams in the Amazon Basin over the next 20 years. According to the non-governmental organization International Rivers, critics believe construction of Belo Monte will open the region to more dams and lead to significant destruction.

The Norte Energia consortium, which includes the Brazilian government and private electric and construction companies, says that Belo Monte was designed without a reservoir in order to reduce the area that needed to be flooded (which initial studies estimated would be 395,370 acres, or 160,000 hectares). "The studies undertaken over the span of more than 30 years regarding the use of hydroelectric plants in the Amazon region mean that the Belo Monte . . . benefits from a fine-tuned design project with an emphasis precisely on the preservation of and respect for the characteristics of the local biome," the company says.

(Related: "Two Rivers: The Chance to Export Power Divides Southeast Asia")

Published December 12, 2011

Awaiting Change

Photograph by Cristina Mittermeier

To make black dye for body painting, Kayapo women mix fruit of the genipap with crushed charcoal. The process of painting fine geometric patterns is labor-intensive and time-consuming. Mittermeier has watched children like this boy in the village of Aukre sit for hours as their mothers or sisters use tiny sticks to pain their bodies. "These children are so well-behaved," Mittermeier says.

Mittermeier has also sat for her own painting, including her pregnant belly on one of her first trips to the region. "I wasn't feeling well at all," she says. "One of the women sat me down and painted my stomach. It was such a powerful experience for me."

When Mittermeier visits, she has her face painted on the first day she arrives so that it fades by the time she reaches an international airport. The dye is temporary and washes away in about a week.

Mittermeier, a native of Mexico City who now lives in Washington, D.C., is a founder and president of the International League of Conservation Photographers. The organization's mission is photographic documentation of places in the natural world that are facing challenges due to development. Mittermeier was a biochemical engineer focused on marine sciences before devoting herself to conservation photography. She took these photos of in the Kayapo villages this past June.

Published December 12, 2011

Mixing Tradition and Learning

Photograph by Cristina Mittermeier

The Kayapo are no strangers to the outside world. Some Kayapo villages now have health centers and schools, where children like this boy in Kuben Konkre are taught both in Portuguese and their native language, Mebengokre. But Mittermeier says school is not mandatory, and children are more often seen playing in the river.

The Kayapo harvest Brazil nuts and produce beaded jewelry and other crafts for export, which brings them in contact with outsiders. Where they once lived virtually unclothed, many of the women have adopted Western dress, and men often wear shorts. Twenty years ago, when Mittermeier first visited the Kayapo, most of them painted their bodies. Many still do, but she says the number has dwindled, particularly in villages that are less isolated.

Published December 12, 2011

A Culture's Clean Energy

Photograph by Cristina Mittermeier

Aside from food and drinking water, the Kayapo also depend on the river for bathing. Cleanliness is an important part of Kayapo culture, Mittermeier says she learned on her travels here. To be dirty is considered antisocial and dangerous to the health.

Like this young mother in the village of Aukre, the Kayapo wash themselves and their children in the river several times a day. Mittermeier says Kayapo women typically marry and begin having children at about 14 or 15.

Norte Energia says it has held 12 public consultations and ten community workshops to discuss the plant's construction, and its representatives have visited more than 4,000 families. Still, outside groups have criticized the project for its potential impact on indigenous peoples, with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States calling for the project to be suspended. Brazil refused to take part in the OAS annual meeting this fall in Washington, D.C., as a result.

Published December 12, 2011

Sustaining Tradition in an Altered World

Photograph by Cristina Mittermeier

The Brazil nut harvest is the Kayapo's greatest source of outside income, but nongovernmental organizations are working to help the people develop other sustainable industries as they experience more contact with the outside world. In addition to a pilot ecotourism project and cocoa  cultivation, the International Conservation Fund of Canada has helped the Kayapo develop foreign markets for unique beaded jewelry like the necklaces and earrings worn by this Kayapo woman.

Published December 12, 2011

A Ritual Rainbow

Photograph by Cristina Mittermeier

The Kayapo are a ritualistic people with a lifestyle marked by ceremony, including this celebration to mark the beginning of manioc season. Also know as cassava and yuca, the manioc is a bitter and starchy root, and a major food staple of the Amazon region. If not processed and cooked properly, manioc is poisonous. The Kayapo cultivate the manioc and create a number of dishes from the root, including flour for bread. From contact with outsiders, the Kayapo have also developed a taste for non-native foods, particularly sugar and coffee.

Published December 12, 2011

Into the Mist

Photograph by Cristina Mittermeier

The Kayapo people tend to move through their lives together with people of their own age and sex, as do these young girls playing in a seasonal waterfall near the remote village of Kubenkrankje. When men go out in hunting parties, Mittermeier says, they hunt in groups that are also segregated by age.

Published December 12, 2011

Patient Labor

Photograph by Cristina Mittermeier

A Kayapo girl uses a tiny stick to paint her sister in Kuben Konkre, one of the largest and most developed Kayapo villages. Many of the Kayapo people live in traditional houses with dirt floors and thatch roofs. Others live in more modern houses with tin roofs; these are beginning to take the place of the older structures.

Published December 12, 2011

On the Hunt

Photograph by Cristina Mittermeier

Men from the Aukre village set out to hunt wild pigs with bamboo bows and arrows made with parrot feathers. In addition to traditional weapons, the Kayapo also use vintage rifles and clubs to hunt game including tapir, peccary, and monkeys.

When the hunt is successful, the meat is split up among those in the village. On this day, Mittermeier says, the men killed three pigs, which they slow-cooked with manioc wrapped in banana leaves and shared with the photographer.

Published December 12, 2011

Catch of the Day

Photograph by Cristina Mittermeier

A daughter carries her father's rifle as they return from fishing to Aukre, a modern village marked by its iron-rich red soil. The Kayapo fish with hooks and line and depend on healthy rivers for food ranging from fish to turtles and caiman. Along with manioc and wild game, seafood accounts for a major part of the Kayapo diet.

Published December 12, 2011

To Nurture Life

Photograph by Cristina Mittermeier

The Kayapo keep many pets, including turtles, parrots, monkeys, and burrowing owls. Here an owl is held by a chief's daughter in Kendjam, one of the most traditional Kayapo villages. The girl is now about 14 years old; Mittermeier says she has known her since she was a baby. "Next time I return, I imagine she will be married," Mittermeier says.

Published December 12, 2011

A Turn in the River Path

Photograph by Cristina Mittermeier

Most Kayapo villages contain between 150 and 250 people. When a village becomes too large, Mittermeier says, a group sets off to establish a new village, often near an abandoned Brazilian military airstrip, like this village along the Iriri, a tributary of the Xingu River. Regardless of where they move, the Kayapo have always stayed near the rivers they depend on for life.

Published December 12, 2011