It was April 7, 2004, and Nakaoka Pio was one of the first to learn about the massacre. A leader of the Sinta-Larga – an indigenous tribe that lived isolated in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest for centuries – Pio knew tensions were high between his people and the white diamond claimants who came to make their fortunes in their backyard Were.
The bodies of 26 miners were found near their reservation. Some were shot with arrows, some with guns or beaten with sticks. “Two of the bodies were missing their eyes, leading to rumors that the warriors had covered the victims’ eyes with honey to attract ants and bees,” Alex Cuadros writes in his new book. “When We Sold God’s Eye: Diamonds, Murder, and a Clash of Worlds in the Amazon” (Grand Central, released December 3),
During a trial in November 2023, prosecutors alleged that “the indigenous people who carried out these acts wanted to prevent anyone else from mining diamonds on their land.” And Pio was one of the prime suspects.
The massacre was shocking, but not a complete surprise. Since 1999, a mining operation in the area, Stream of the Blackflies, rumored to be worth $20 million per month, had become a gunpowder dump. It was only a matter of time before tensions between natives and white fortune seekers would lead to violence.
Pio was dubbed a “diamond merchant” by the media, and “he was rumored to have three mansions and a fleet of imported trucks with white drivers,” Cuadros writes. “Some of it, he acknowledged, was true.” But while he shared some of the blame for unchecked greed, Pio couldn’t help but wonder: “Was he too greedy to desire the things that white people had taught him to desire?”
Before the arrival of white treasure hunters, his people – numbering barely 2,000 – had no experience of the civilized world. He never saw calendars or watches. They knew nothing about money or wealth. As Pio once said, “When we need something, nuts or honey or fruit, we go to look for it in the forest.”
The Cinta-Larga – which, legend has it, once shadowed an Amazon expedition led by Theodore Roosevelt in the early 20th century – were also cannibals until at least the 1970s. Cuadros writes, “The warriors ate everything, even breaking bones to suck out the marrow.” When an anthropologist was asked what human flesh tasted like, he compared it to that of “tapir “of the dark, flavorful flesh of “, writes Cuadros. White men, on the other hand – whom Sinta-Larga first encountered in the 1920s – were “too salty”.
There was no such thing as ownership in the world of the Sinta-Larga, a tribe numbering barely 2,000. Even white people who brought metal tools, such as swords or knives, were thrown to the ground after each use and left for someone else to find. The diamonds that would soon turn the region into a magnet for prospectors were largely ignored. Once, a group of women found a stone so large, “they said it looked like the Ngura Inhakip – ‘Eye of God’,” Cuadros writes. “It would have been worth an almost unimaginable amount. But they had no use for it, so they threw it back in the water.”
The white visitors didn’t just bring gifts; They also brought diseases. In 1971, when Pio was just a child, his father Mancalu contracted measles while visiting an outdoor camp and soon he and most of Pio’s family died. This was an important moment for the young Indian. Cuadros writes, “Without having to come into contact with anyone, Pio discovered that he could remain calm even in the face of extremes, and take initiative when others failed.”
Pio finds a new village to call home, and soon he proves he has something valuable to offer. He had leadership abilities and a charming personality that won over whites and Indians alike. Due to his command of the Portuguese language, he became a sort of foreign minister for the tribe. “Whenever there is a problem, I will deal with the white people,” Pio would explain to his friends.
As an adult, Pio became a natural leader, although of a very different kind from his warrior father. Cuadros writes, “Although not afraid of violence, (Pio) wanted to avoid it.” “Hoping to get the government on their side, they tried to go through official channels.”
The trouble began in 1999, when Luca Pintado, an eccentric “albino-white” man in his 80s who spoke with a strange accent, arrived in the country of Sinta Larga in search of diamonds. There had long been rumors of hidden riches in the Amazon jungle, but Pio never fully believed these stories.
“You’ll see,” Pintado promised him. “You are going to become the richest Indian in the world.”
Pintado was right, at least about the diamonds. As they discovered, the area contained one of the most abundant diamond deposits in the world. Although Brazilian law prohibited mining in indigenous territory, this did not stop prospectors from coming. And instead of fighting to keep them out, Pio partnered with them, charging a fee for admission to the reservation.
First, it was a financial windfall, with many tribe leaders purchasing luxuries such as new homes, color TVs, and cars. However, Pio was more interested in redistribution of wealth. He invested in medicine and medical staff for the tribe. He bought dairy cows and hired a farmer to teach him how to milk them. “Pio was always thinking about his people,” a tribal member told the author. “He wasn’t like, ‘It’s mine.’ Instead it was: ‘This is ours.'”
But resentment was increasing on both sides. The Indians believed that they should have greater ownership of the mines, while the miners believed that the tribe was becoming rich on the strength of their labor. Pio was caught in the middle, “at once an alleged kingpin, overseeing a multimillion-dollar mining operation, and a legitimate leader of his people, fighting for better education and health care and the integrity of his land,” Cuadros writes.
By early 2004, the situation had reached a tipping point, and Pio could do little to control it. After the massacre, Pio made matters worse by his presence in the media. “Don’t let your son come here anymore, don’t let your husband come here anymore,” she said in an interview with TV Globo. “Know that this can happen, because I can’t keep everyone under control.”
Federal police tried to charge Pio with “leading” and “instigating” the killings, but could not find enough evidence to convict him. Two decades later, “almost all charges have passed the statute of limitations, ending without a verdict,” Cuadros writes.
Pio continues to emphasize that “if [he] were present, [he]…the incidents would not have been allowed to happen.” But his regret at what happened to the people of Sinta-Larga goes beyond one bloody day of violence.
“The white man’s stuff makes us lazy,” he reportedly said during a phone call intercepted by the feds. If they had “remained in the forest” none of their misfortunes would have happened. At least we didn’t worry there. There were no clothes, no money, nothing. , , There were no guns, no weekdays, no Sundays, no Saturdays.”
