Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Before, we walked from here to there, around the land. We were very afraid of the bull-
dozers, and that is why we walked to every place. We walked at night, from one place
to another. . . . We did not know where to go that would be safe from the bulldozers.
These people concluded that the bulldozers—like dogs, chickens, and
trucks—were monstrous beings sent by
Cojñone
to follow their scent and
consume their land. As Siquei put it,
We did not know before that people were inside. We thought that machines moved
by themselves, but it turns out that there is space inside where people sit. We did not
know what was inside of them. We thought that they had eyes and could see where
to go. We thought that they obeyed the words of the white men [
Cojñone
]. That is
what we thought before because we did not know. We thought machines were like
dogs. . . . We thought the bulldozers were looking for us because they knew how to
find the places that had always been ours. We thought they were following us. Every
time we made a village a bulldozer would come.
They imagined that these noisy beings communicated with the
Co-
jñone
in a foreign language and told them where to find the forest people.
