Yanomami Territory

• Following reports of two separate violent attacks in which five people were reportedly killed, the Brazilian government has pledged to expedite the removal of illegal miners from Yanomami, Brazil’s largest indigenous territory.

About Yanomami Territory

• The Yanomami territory is the largest Indigenous land in Brazil, covering an area of about 96,000 square kilometres in the Amazon rainforest.
• It is home to about 30,000 Yanomami people, who live in hundreds of villages scattered across the region.
• The Yanomami are one of the most isolated and culturally diverse indigenous groups in the world, with their languages, customs and beliefs.
• They live in large, circular houses called yanos or shabonos, some of which can hold up to 400 people.
• The Yanomami consider all people to be equal, and do not have a chief. Instead, all decisions are based on consensus after long discussions and debates.
• They speak Xirianá