It is a scene imbued with drama and tension: in the remote reaches of the rainforest on the Brazil-Venezuela border, a plane used by health workers is captured by a group of Yanomami. It is their second seizure of an aircraft in recent months, and their protest actions are both a sharp criticism and a demand for consultation in the political decisions that pertain to their health. It is the act of a people who have for years faced terrible abuses of their human rights, with insufficient support from the government. For the 32,000 members of the Yanomami people, their health and welfare rests in the hands of those removed from their experience and needs.

The Yanomami are one of the largest relatively isolated tribes in South America. Their lands constitute the biggest forested indigenous territory in the world. The Yanomamis' rights are protected under Brazilian law, and the current legislation requires that they be consulted regarding any matters that relate to their health.

Such principles are also stipulated in ILO Convention 169, the binding international law that protects the rights of tribal people, which Brazil has ratified. So why are the Yanomami seizing airplanes? The short answer is the tribe’s frustration with the recently nominated indigenous health coordinator for their region, but the underlying cause is the systemic injustice that the Brazilian government has failed to eradicate. The current conflict finds its origins in the decades-old practice of illegal gold mining on Yanomami land.

Gold mining has wreaked havoc on Yanomami populations since the gold rush of the 1980s, and it has become a fixture of the local economy. As with all relatively isolated and uncontacted peoples, the Yanomami had little resistance to diseases foreign to their communities. When many Yanomami came into contact with outsiders for the first time, the Indians suffered dramatic population loss.

Yanomami spokesman and shaman Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, who experienced first-hand the havoc wrought by contact with outsiders as epidemics devastated his community, is a key figure in the fight for the preservation of the Yanomami land and way of life. In 1985, Davi began the long and arduous bid for the recognition of his people’s land rights, a fight that took him around the globe to mobilize the international outcry that would force Brazil’s hand.

Finally, in 1992, the Brazilian government appropriated 9.6 million hectares of Yanomami territory into a protected park, expelling the miners. But protection of the Yanomami land requires the government’s constant monitoring and enforcement, and while their situation has vastly improved, there are still thought to be thousands of illegal gold miners operating on Yanomami land.

The result of these frequent violations over the course of many years has created major health issues for the Yanomami. Last year Survival International reported on Yanomami protests against the mining, describing more of the harsh consequences of this illegal activity: “The miners threaten the lives of the Yanomami by increasing the likelihood of violence and introducing diseases to which the Yanomami have little resistance. Mercury which is used to separate the gold pollutes the water the Yanomami drink and bathe in, and the noise from the dredges and generators in the camps frightens off the game the Yanomami hunt – an important source of protein in their diet.”

In 2007, a major police operation was carried out to arrest political appointees to the regional health office on the evidence that “US$19 million designated for indigenous health care had been stolen.” These are but a few examples in a long timeline of injustices. Continued threats to their existence have left the Yanomami no choice but to protest and fight for the most basic of human rights.

Even more precarious is the fate of the groups of uncontacted Yanomami, some of whom have been sighted by contacted Yanomami, and who continue to live apart from the communities, with no contact with the outside world. These uncontacted peoples, referred to as ‘Moxateteu’ by the contacted Yanomami, have no resistance to the diseases that miners may carry, so contact is extremely dangerous for them. Nor will their populations feasibly withstand an outbreak of malaria, a prospect made more likely by the stagnant water left behind by mining, ideal for reproducing malarial mosquitoes. The Moxateteu are believed to be living in the part of the Yanomami territory with the highest concentration of illegal gold miners. And as contact becomes more likely, so does the potential devastation it could cause. It is not unusual for over 50% of a tribe to die within the first few years of contact.

As the Yanomami continue to protest, we are witnessing a plea for engagement and respect. The Yanomami have battled for decades to be able to shape their own fate, and while legally these rights and protections have been enshrined in law, their practical enforcement has been ineffective.

In a letter to President Lula in 2009, the Yanomami organization known as Hutukara worded their desires simply and powerfully: “Just because we are different to you and live in a different way and value different things does not mean that we are poor…We Yanomami have other riches left to us by our ancestors…the land that gives us life and clean water which we drink, and our children who are happy…. We want our right to choose what is best for us guaranteed.”

A groundswell of public support was integral to the creation of the Yanomami park in 1992. Almost twenty years later, the Yanomami still need help to protect their land and way of life.

Margaux Stack-Babich writes for Survival International.