A Quilombo Called Canudos - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 52

tough semi-wild cattle pressed westward through the thorny woodlands, the masters of
the beasts and slaves who ran them found a land of resistant forest fighters. 54
Historian Bart Barickman has pointed out that the presence of natives remained
stronger in the outback than is usually recognized. Historical ethnographers such as Hal
Langfur and John Hemming have emphasized that the popular idea of the “vanishing
Indian” obscures the reality of relentless resistance. 55 The region was deeply contested,
and settlement throughout the Sertão was profoundly affected by the dynamics of both
guerrilla and structured warfare. 56
In this context, the widespread mission settlements—the aldeias —were complex, in
some cases generating truly syncretic cultures based on native and Catholic spiritual
sources, while in others the Indians were basically catechized slaves. 57 Indian lands of
the aldeias were often simply expropriated by local elites. The Karirí, close to the slave-
demanding sugar economy and the relentlessly expanding cattle systems, were unfortu-
nately located at one of the most brutal intersections of labor demand and land dispos-
session on the continent. 58 As Karirí and other groups rustled or hunted livestock, they
opened themselves up to enslavement and “Just” war. Landowners retaliated with entra-
das , forays to pacify the outback, and usually, after killing the men, sent the women and
childrentobesoldonthecoast;perhapsdaCunha'sbeautifulgrandmotherhadbeenone
of these.
Within the aldeias , natives practiced a syncretic version of Christianity—traditional
native festival days would be celebrated with missas de caboclo (native masses), and
native deities and myths could be worked into the catechism. 59 The autonomy and syn-
cretic nature of Canudos, distant from the formal church, the Brazilian state, and their
economies, made it a place of interest for indigenous populations, especially the Karirí.
The Karirí were insurrectionists. In the famous Revolt de Malês, when Muslim slaves
sought to overthrow the Portuguese and establish a New World Caliphate in Salvador,
Bahia, the Karirí expressed their solidarity with the rebels though they did not particip-
ate in the urban uprising. 60 At the time of the Canudos uprising, Karirí Indians from
the aldeia of Natuba decamped entirely for Conselheiro's city, as did Tuxas tribals and
Kaimbé from the aldeia of Souré. This was why there were three hundred Karirí Indians
in Canudos, including their powerful shaman, dancing in full regalia before the final at-
tackanddyingthere. 61 Itispossibletoimaginethatwithaslighttwistintoanalternative
universe, with a different destiny for da Cunha's grandmother, Euclides himself might
have been stamping war dances in the central plaza of Canudos as the Brazilian mili-
tiaspreparedtheirassaults.CertainlyhehadnativecousinsandkinfolkamongtheKarirí
making their last stand at Canudos.
Quilombo do Canudos ?