00:00Flying over Brazil's Para state, agents from the country's Environmental Protection Agency
00:06spot signs of an illegal mine.
00:09By the time they arrive at the camp, the miners have already fled.
00:14The agents said the hammocks and clothing left behind were evidence the miners were
00:19indigenous.
00:21The Mandaruku Territory, a reservation the size of Switzerland on the Tapajós River,
00:27has become a hotspot for illegal mining, which Brazilian law bans on indigenous land.
00:32But increasingly, Mandaruku tribe members are entering the illegal trade that is backed
00:37by organized crime.
00:40Environmental agents and police say that is making it more difficult for Brazil to crack
00:44down on wildcat mining in the Amazon.
00:47It's also sowing division within the Mandaruku tribe.
00:50While a majority believe gold mining is wrong, tribe leaders say lack of government assistance
00:55is forcing people to seek other ways to deal with poverty.
00:59Samuel Mangabal is among them.
01:06He says he recently found 60 grams of gold in the river, about 20 times his daily amount
01:12and enough to buy a boat and an engine.
01:15But his brother was furious and threatened to kill him if he continued, so he was forced
01:19to leave their village.
01:22President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has pledged to wipe out illegal mining that boomed under
01:27his far-right predecessor and has become harder to repress across the Amazon.
01:32Evicting miners has become more difficult on the Mandaruku Territory now that tribe
01:36members are looking for gold.
01:39Tribal leaders estimate 40 percent of the gold mining on the reservation is carried
01:43out by indigenous people today.
01:45Adding to the difficulty, local police officers have been taking bribes from a gold mining
01:50business to turn a blind eye, according to a document seen by Reuters.
01:56A chief for a nearby village said the way to stop illegal mining is to tap funding for
02:00sustainable development, such as by selling carbon credits.
02:04But there is skepticism about whether they would generate enough income to replace gold
02:09mining.
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