He was a famed community leader and one whose whole life is about the struggle against

threat to his people, threats to his culture, threats to the territorial rights of his people,

suddenly being taken to a hospital while so little was actually known about the disease.

From Futuro Media, it's Latino USA, I'm Maria Inujosa, today the death of an elder and what

that represents for an indigenous community in the Amazon River Basin.

Brazil's indigenous groups have been under threat since way before COVID-19 reached the

Amazon.

Their lands often lack effective protection from the government, illegal mining, logging

and other national and international interests have been steadily increasing for decades

on their territories.

Environmental degradation, rising rates of inequality and health and education, these

two are major obstacles for these communities.

Taken all together, all of these threats amount to a form of cultural assault that puts

the very identity of indigenous peoples at risk.

A lot of indigenous groups in the Amazon have languages that are exclusively oral, they're

only spoken, which is in part why these tongues are really hard to pass on.

There's maybe a Bible and maybe a dictionary, but other than that, very few, if any, written

texts.

And then on top of that enters the pandemic, of course.

This is journalist Sam Shramski.

He and his reporting partner, Bilro Saneto, have been investigating how one indigenous community

has taken on COVID-19.

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