COUTINHO, T. C.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/5733233091796996; COUTINHO, Taciana de Carvalho.
Resumen:
The Tikuna ethnic group is the largest indigenous Brazilian population, distributed in the
neighboring countries, Peru and Colombia. On the Brazilian side, it occupies the region of Alto
Solimões - Amazonas, which experienced socio-environmental vicissitudes along the Solimões
river channel. The vast distribution of the Tikuna allowed new forms of sociability in the face
of the emergence of new municipalities on the borders with indigenous communities. The thesis
was aimed to analyze the relations established between the city of the Indians (Tikuna ethnic
group) and the urbanization of the city of the Government (Tabatinga municipality), Amazonas
(1964-2017), telling the story of different social actors, making it possible to understand the
dynamics of transformations lived by the Umariaçu Indigenous Land, from the territorialization
process to its demarcation by the state apparatus. The study outlined the vicissitudes arising
from the chronological milestones: the opening of the airstrip of the Tabatinga International
Airport, the creation of the Military Colony and the opening of the Avenida da Amizade. The
urbanization unleashed by the government plans of the military period penetrated the forest
regions occupied by the traditional peoples, thus initiating the transformations in the
environments of the world's largest ecosystem, the Amazonian forest. The urbanization of the
city put in question the way of life of countless Indians, who visualized the overthrow of
important symbolic spaces and also of diverse ecosystems of trees, streams, gradually
diminishing the flora and fauna. Natural resources were being eliminated to put into practice
the formation of urban centers emerging in the forest. Finally, a voice was given to the main
protagonists of the Umariaçu Indigenous Land, the Tikuna, in which knowledge and looks
intertwined to understand the dynamics of the identity elements. For the Tikuna, the present
and the future are the challenges to be reaffirmed and reinvented in the socio-environmental
context of the current century, given the fragility imposed by the urbanization that advances on
the Amazonian forest.