Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Territory | |
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Terra Indígena Raposa Serra do Sol | |
Lake Caracaranã, a sacred place of the Macuxi people located in Raposa/Serra do Sol in an area settled by farmers. Photo: Roosewelt Pinheiro/ABr
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Coordinates | 3°50′46″N 59°46′52″W / 3.846°N 59.781°WCoordinates: 3°50′46″N 59°46′52″W / 3.846°N 59.781°W |
Area | 1,743,089 ha (6,730.10 sq mi) |
Designation | Indigenous territory |
Created | 15 April 2005 |
Terra indígena Raposa/Serra do Sol (Portuguese for Fox/Sun Hills Indigenous Land) is an indigenous territory in Brazil, intended to be home to the Macuxi people. It is located in the northern half of the Brazilian state of Roraima and is the largest in that country and one of the world's largest, with an area of 1,743,089 hectares (4,307,270 acres) and a perimeter of about 1,000 kilometres (620 mi).
The area includes two major natural landscapes: plains occupied by a type of vegetation similar to that of cerrado and steep mountains covered with thick rainforest. The Pacaraima Mountains in the north of the territory separate Brazil from Venezuela and Guyana. The territory contains the 116,748 hectares (288,490 acres) Monte Roraima National Park, created in 1989.
Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous territory is home to about 20,000 people, most of them Macuxi. Other peoples represented there are the Wapixanas, Ingaricós, Taurepangs and Patamonas, as well as non-indigenous farmers. The inhabitants of the reserve vary wildly in language and degree of cultural contact with the mainstream Brazilian culture. The Macuxis have a good degree of contact with the local non-indigenous society, while others are still outside its reach. Most of the Indians of the reserve cannot speak Portuguese. Most of the contact the Indians have had with the mainstream society has been through FUNAI researchers, missionaries, military men, gold diggers and farmers, who grow rice in the damp plains.