{MELODIC CHANTING} [DAVID YETMAN] The Krahô people have lived in settlements in central Brazil for centuries.

In low forests call the “Cerrado,” their villages have a central plaza in the form of a wheel symbolizing their hold on the world and the center of their universe.

There they perform ritualized races and express their interpretation of the cosmos.

{CHANTING, PERCUSSION} [ANNOUNCER] Funding for In the Americas with David Yetman was provided by Robert and Carol Dorsey, the Gilford Fund, Arch and Laura Brown, and Hugh and Joyce Bell.

[DAVID YETMAN] In northeastern Tocantins, the newest state in Brazil, lies the reservation of the people called the Krahô or Mehim, as they call themselves.

Their reservation is the largest in Brazil, the size of Rhode Island.

To visit them, we traveled to Palmas, the capital of the state of Tocantins, and from there to the distant town of Itacajá, deep within the vast “Cerrado,” the low tropical forest of central Brazil.

There, we await permission to visit the Krahô villages of Piedra Blanca and Santa Cruz.

{MELODIC CHANTING} [VITOR ARATANHA] {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} [TRANSLATION] He█s calling to gather the men to race.

In front of us is the house with the Toras, where the sacred logs are kept.

They gather here to race in the “Pahti”.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} {CHANTING CONTINUES} [TEREZINHA DIAS] {IN PORTUGUESE} Located in the central region of Brazil, are a people called Krahô.

Here they practice a series of rituals that are part of their cosmology.

In the middle of a round, circular plateau, here, these people believe they hold the world.

These rituals are expressed through songs and traditional dances, celebrating the life of the Krahô people and all people of humanity.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} {CHANTING, PERCUSSION} [DAVID] The Krahô have an enormous advantage over other Indigenous groups in Brazil in that they have a huge plot of land that is theirs.

It is the size of a smaller state, in the United States, consists almost entirely of this unusual ecosystem in Brazil called the Cerrado, which is a low lying forest with often ample rain.

So there are a lot of streams, particularly in this area.

They view their function as maintaining a balance in the universe between what the world has and what the world can provide for them, not exploiting one at the advantage of the other.

And the people who work with them and study them are adamant that this way of life that they are preserving with a deep respect for, the Cerrado, all the creatures that live in it and their agriculture, which they have brought with them from thousands of years ago, is an example of what the Cerrado can continue to be as an alternative to the mass of land clearing that undergoes for the international trade in commodities and works to the detriment of so many Brazilians.

[TEREZINHA] {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} This territory is the birthplace of numerous springs that form important rivers in the central region of Brazil.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} Here, the Krahôs procreate and live in total balance with the environment.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} Their traditional agricultural system is responsible for this equilibrium.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} Their system makes the Krahô natural conservationists.

Their area is fully protected as part of one of the 230 Brazilian indigenous territories.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} Within their territory, these tribal members practice a lifestyle that is more harmonious with the environment.

Consequently, they're an important part of conserving this biome for Brazil.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} {YELLING IN NATIVE LANGUAGE} [LUIS PINTO CACOÔXEN] {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} [TRANSLATION] This is our indigenous culture, the ancient traditions that come from our origin.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} Which our ancestors sang, demonstrated, explained and commanded us to never forget.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} [MARTINS IHKREHÔÀT] {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} [TRANSLATION] Our great-grandparents taught us to run with the “Tora” and sing our song.

[DAVID] The two groups have gone running away to get their log.

{CHANTING, PERCUSSION} [MIGUELITO CAWKRE] {IN PORTUGUESE} There are always two groups that compete against each other.

The Tora run is a competition.

Two competing groups, winter and summer.

West and East.

{LOG THUDS} {CROWD CHATTER} [EDSON XÔTYC] {IN PORTUGUESE} The log weighs 200 kilos.

It's a very hard, dense wood.

Only the runners strong enough can carry it.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} [DAVID] The overall effect is it being a sport of strength and endurance and it weighs two or three times as much as they do.

We have to wonder maybe they do have a source of energy that the rest of us don't have.

[VITOR] {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} [TRANSLATION] These two halves, these two clans, this is how they organize their collective lives: In a village within the village.

You are born into one of these two clans.

You don't choose it.

[EDSON] {IN PORTUGUESE} After the first race, they change sides and run with the Tora that the other clan ran with in the first race.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} This has to do with how each person entered the public life of the village within a training ritual.

For the young people.

They remain in that clan until they die.

{CHANTING} {BIRDS CHIRPING} {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} [TRANSLATION] The people from the village at the top are the west.

Below are the east: where the sun rises and where the sun sets.

[TEREZINHA] {IN PORTUGUESE} The big difference between the Krahô and other Indigenous territories is that most of the springs originate in the middle of this territory and flow outwards.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} As a people they differentiate themselves because in these times they manage to maintain a large territory only preserved in the middle of the central area of Brazil, where large conventional agriculture or monoculture projects are expanding.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} Each group of men and women have a specific social role.

For men, there is the issue of governing the village and deciding what to do and how to work.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} Men are also responsible for organizing joint efforts to work with agriculture.

This is done in the central circle of the village courtyard called, “Kà” {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} Women are responsible for their households, located on the outer rim of the Circle {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} There, they are, sovereign and govern and take care of their families.

And in this context, the social roles of men and women are quite defined, especially in relation to hunting processes, which is a very masculine role.

Cultivation is separate.

Some activities women do, and others, men do.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} {MEN YELL, HEAVY BREATHING} {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} Krahô rituals are essential to the way of life of these people.

They strengthen the bond of belonging and being Krahô and reinforce the stories and mythology.

They also fortify the cohesion of this group.

So these rituals are very important for their cultural survival.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} Krahô engage in a series of songs with the history of the people.

The history of the plants is passed along in the middle of the courtyard.

{CHANTING} The songs that sound like mantras are repeated over and over.

{CHANTING} In this way, children and young people acquire knowledge about Krahô life and history.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} {YELLING, HEAVY BREATHING} [ERIVELTON HERWY] {IN PORTUGUESE} [TRANSLATION] Our clan won!

We█re the summer clan.

We came in first place.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} It's really good to carry the heavy Tora.

It's a good feeling to run.

Our tradition is our culture.

{MEN YELLING} The group that lost can challenge the summer clan to a footrace without the Tora.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} {CHANTING} And the challengers won that race.

The original victors won a rematch.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} A different kind of footrace.

Whereby individuals are paired against each other.

{YELLING, LAUGHING} {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} [DAVID] In their language, they all have numbers going up to three.

It's one, two, three, a lot.

It works perfectly well.

It's a friendly competition, but it's a community competition that balances.

And balance is so important to these people.

{CROWD CHATTER, HEAVY BREATHING} [DOMINGO KÀÀKÊT] {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} [TRANSLATION] I painted these markings.

I love to paint.

And this is where I live.

This is a ritual.

I paint myself and then I run.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} You first grind the bark, make it into a paint, and then you paint your body.

The red is “Uruqú,” and the black is [unintelligible] {CHANTING} [DAVID] All the meetings begin and all the meetings end with a group yell.

{CHANTING} [DAVID] Before dark, we leave Piedra Blanca for the night.

Early the next morning we visit another village, Santa Cruz.

This one closer to mainstream Brazil.

{MACAW SCREECHES} [TEREZINHA] {IN PORTUGUESE} Here, in the Krahô indigenous land, there are approximately 40 villages with almost 4000 people, where within these 40 villages, the Krahô practice their traditional culture and way of living.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} {MACAW SCREECHES} {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} [DAVID] I've been given a very warm welcome to the community of Santa Cruz.

Our guide for Embrapa, Terezinha was baptized here.

[TEREZINHA] {IN PORTUGUESE} The Krahô have a circular perception of everything.

Everything is interconnected.

Unlike our world, the Krahô world establishes a relationship between all things, especially within the village.

It is circular, in shape, composed of a circle of houses with a central courtyard where a series of rituals linked to corn, sweet potatoes, the change of government, rites of passage, the passage of the spirit to the soul are all performed in this central courtyard.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} These markings here are part of a ritual.

The stripes They represent the Winter Clan.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} [DAVID] The village of Santa Cruz has a large number of children.

The recovery of the Krahô has been remarkable.

They were decimated and the population went down very, very few people 100 years ago.

They have recovered that.

And now there are a lot of children in the villages.

{SPEAKING NATIVE TONGUE} These are seeds from a fruit, a tropical fruit.

And they are very, very hard.

Surprisingly so.

And so they feel like glass and this lady told me yeah, it's a lot of work to make these necklaces.

{SINGING} The song talks about a capybara diving into the water to bathe itself, coming out, shaking itself having been cleansed.

{CHILDREN LAUGH, SPLASH} Both the songs have to do with water and the importance of water to the community.

[TEREZINHA] {IN PORTUGUESE} What worries us about these traditional villages is the nearby encroachment and big conventional agriculture.

[LUIZ PEPKRÔ] {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} [TRANSLATION] Devastation of nature is coming, is coming from all sides and we are right in the middle of it.

[TEREZINHA] {IN PORTUGUESE} The Krahô territory is three quarters of a million acres large.

Most of the springs are in the middle of their territory.

The springs provide clean quality water to the surrounding area.

This is a great asset that must be preserved.

They act as guardians of the sources that provide clean water and 22 streams.

They are likewise the guardians of traditional seeds.

And all this biodiversity that surrounds us.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} {YELLING IN NATIVE TONGUE} [DAVID] The capybara loves people as we can see but does not like dogs.

{CAPYBARA MAKES SOUNDS} The sound that the capybara makes is the sound of an ambulance.

{IMITATES CAPYBARA} It's a very unusual sound.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} [TRANSLATION] This dough is made out of “beiju.” We don█t want the city life, city food.

We want the forest to provide for us, for our children and our babies.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} {CHILDREN CHATTING} [DAVID] They offered to take me down to their favorite swimming hole, which is a resource beyond belief.

One of the things the Krahô knew when they got this land was that it had an abundance of water.

If we look at adjacent areas, untold millions of acres of corn and soy and eucalyptus, what we find is that the arroyos are drying up.

There's a small strip of vegetation that they leave, but that is not enough to make up for the value of the trees in holding the soil and creating the kind of atmosphere currents that cooperate with the atmosphere to bring rain When the industrial fields come in, the springs dry up and the swimming holes go away.

{BIG SPLASH} {SPLASHING FOOTSTEPS} [LUIZ] {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} [TRANSLATION] On the banks of the river, we used to see a lot of armadillos.

Nowadays you can walk along the riverbank and never see tracks of armadillos.

A younger generation is coming.

And what will we leave them?

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} [JURANDIR JAWIW] {IN PORTUGUESE} Inside there is a “Paparote.” It's the real thing.

We're in the process of removing the hot rocks that are covering the Paparote.

It's a pharmacy of roots and herbs, fish, an assortment of meats.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} {RUSTLING PALMS} It's really hot.

[TEREZINHA] {IN PORTUGUESE} Preserving this culture will preserve all of the biodiversity of this territory.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} {MAN CHANTING} [DAVID] We don't tarry in Santa Cruz for we must return to Piedra Blanca for closing ceremonies, some that we did not foresee.

[VITOR] {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} [TRANSLATION] In 1940, a nearby village was violently attacked by nearby ranchers.

It was a terrible massacre.

More than 30 Krahô died on the spot.

You know, It was terrible, of course, the massacre.

But on the other hand, this provided the Krahô all the opportunity to demarcate a territory for themselves.

They chose exactly the location where the springs are located in the middle of these lands.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} {CHANTING} The hatchet is a sacred and powerful object.

It's part of their mythology.

It instructs him how the Krahô will learn to hunt, what animals they can eat, tells them of their environment, and what types of plants exist in their different environments.

All of this is implicit in the story of the mythological character who owned the sacred hatchet.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} {CHANTING} [TRANSLATION] What she is saying is that young people no longer follow all the traditions and sometimes they don't run as hard and fast in the competition as they used to.

In the past, women ran sometimes twice a day and now fewer run and they run slower.

Furthermore, she says, women here are no longer make the same foods they used to make.

{SPEAKING NATIVE TONGUE} Now they wear blouses.

The young ones go to the forest less and therefore know less about nature.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} We have gender roles that have been very well defined, she says.

Men went hunting and in the women prepare the food in the house.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} The Krahô believe that marriage works well when the man and the woman compliment each other, when each fulfills their own role, when the man takes care of his and the woman takes care of hers, they complement each other.

{WOMEN YELLING} [JULIANA PAHÎC] {IN PORTUGUESE} I participate in the running of the Tora.

It is my favorite sport.

{WOMEN YELLING} [ANA TETYC] {IN PORTUGUESE} We inherited our culture from our great grandfathers who told us through song how it is done.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} {WOMEN YELL} [TRANSLATION] The young ones begin training with small Toras, short runs and little by little they are ready to compete in the large Tora competition.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} That Tora is super heavy.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} We value our culture even when we leave our villages we never forget.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} {LOG THUDS} {MANY CHANTING} {BIRD CHIRPS} [DAVID] I have requested to be baptized into the Mehim family and that this is part of the ceremony.

And I now I'm going to be subjected to their traditions.

{GROUP CHATTER} {GRASS RUSTLING} {WATER SPLASHING} {GROUP CHATTER} [DAVID] This is called immersion baptism.

{CHANTING} [DAVID] I█m standing in the middle of the “Patio,” the very sacred, important part of the community, essential part of the community.

And they have brought me here as part of this ceremony.

And it seems fitting because it is perhaps the center of the sun, perhaps the center of the culture of the center of great universal forces.

And I am here, oh, completely in their hands.

As part of the ritual, they cut the hair, which is to resemble the way they keep their hair.

{SCISSORS SNIP} {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} [DAVID] I do feel like I look different from the way I ordinarily do when I go to work.

{GROUP CHATTER} {CHANTING} {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} {GROUP CHANTING} {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} {CHANTING} {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} {SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} [TRANSLATION] They are a very notable people who have many rituals, each one having its own meaning, its own context.

So there are rituals related to death and mourning, educating and guiding young people, including traditional rites of passage.

There are festivals around the harvest and its relationship to food production.

Each ritual and festival has its own origin and story.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} Our world, The world of non-natives is a world of accumulating.

Krahô have possessions, but they don't accumulate.

Things circulate within the community.

Their rituals are fundamental to this concept and serve to strengthen the bonds between them as Krahô people.

{SPEAKING PORTUGUESE} {WOMAN CHANTING} [DAVID] The carrying of the great logs, the foot races, the dances, the movement among each other, each one of these activities brings together the people and reminds them of their common roots that go back thousands of years.

The other importance is for all of them, it brings them into greater closeness to the forces and the power of the universe beyond them.

A message we might all consider.

{MELODIC CHANTING} Join us next time In the Americas with me, David Yetman.

[DAVID] New Orleans is our nation's party city without serious competitors, but its very existence is regularly threatened by the forces of nature.

Engineers and scientists have responded to the threats in a very big way.

This is a basic food here.

This is a ground, very fine ground, corn and chicken.

And it is cooked, steamed in banana leaves.

And until it's done, this is labor intensive to make this.

And they make a lot of it at one time for special occasions, they start in the morning early and they put it into a pit and cover it and it cooks all day.

It's really quite tasty.

[ANNOUNCER] Funding for In the Americas with David Yetman was provided by Robert and Carol Dorsey, the Gilford Fund, Arch and Laura Brown, and Hugh and Joyce Bell.