‘A patriótica e verdadeiramente humanitária proteção aos índios’. Memória e retrospectiva sobre o Serviço de Proteção ao Índio por um velho indigenista

Abstract

[EN] In 1967, the Service of Indian Protection (SPI in Portuguese), Brazilian indigenistinstitution, was living its last days. Tormented by political and criminal investi-gations and scandals, the military in power seized the situation to extinguish theSPI and reform the indigenism under their geopolitical and strategical purposes.In those last moments, Alberto Pizarro Jacobina, an old indigenist, publishedfive texts in the O Globo journal (between 7th and 12th of October 1967), traying todefend and justify the memory of the SPI, as well as its material and symboliclegacy. Using theses texts as trigger, this paper analyzes the SPI’s historical chal-lenges and problems in the contemporary Brazilian context, seen thru the eyesof a person who dedicated his life to the romantic “rondonian” indigenist project.