The construction of the hydroelectric dam on the corda river: an interdisciplinary analysis of indigenous rights and the idea of progress in the 1940s-1950s in maranhão, Brazil

Abstract

This paper, focusing on the construction of the Cachoeira Grande hydroelectric dam on the Corda River, located in the municipality of Barra do Corda, in the Legal Amazon area of Maranhão, aims to correlate the developmental interests of the 1940s-1950s with indigenous rights. The proposal, of interdisciplinary basis in terms of the use of research sources and approaches from the Humanities field, resorts to History to situate the political and economic context of Maranhão at the time of the construction and failure of the hydroelectric dam; to Law, to raise legal aspects related to the licensing of large-scale works on indigenous lands; and to Anthropology, to understand the dimension of the impact caused to the Guajajara Indians, from the Cachoeira Village, who occupied the area chosen for the energy venture. From the general analysis it was possible to arrive at the following statement, which can be broken down into a few conclusive aspects that can be further investigated: there is a tension of contradictory interests between the bases of economic development and the mechanisms guaranteeing the land rights of indigenous peoples in the 1940s-1950s. On the one hand, progress, translated as economic prosperity, dictated the pace of industrial economic policy and the country's interiorization: in Barra do Corda, the strategies of the National Agricultural Colony would be enhanced by energy production, which, in turn, would stimulate the mineral and leather trade in the region. On the other hand, the legislation and organs for protecting the indigenous peoples were complacent to integrationist ideas and tolerant to the territorial transfer of the natives whenever necessary for the development of progress. In Barra do Corda, the inhabitants of the Cachoeira village were expelled under the argument that the population was small and the occupation was occasional in order to make way for the hydroelectric dam.  The indigenous people would return to the area years later, but under the socio-cultural scourges imposed by the loss of territory.