A Brazilian court has ordered the government to pay the Panará Indians $330,000, ruling that construction of a road across their land in the 1970s led to a devastating decline in the tribe’s population. The Socioenvironmental Institute (ISA), the São Paulo nonprofit that represented the Panará, says the ruling marks the first time the government has been ordered to indemnify an indigenous people. “It sets a precedent that other indigenous peoples can use to seek financial redress for actions that result in the decimation of their communities,” says ISA attorney Ana Valeria Araujo Leitao. The federal court ruled the road lead settlers, loggers, and miners to the Panará, bringing diseases against which the tribe had no immunity. The defendants—the Federal Indian Agency (Funai) and... [Log in to read more]