A federal judge agreed. This victory came at a time of proliferation of indigenous rights organizations, helped by a 1988 overhaul of the national constitution that clarified and reinforced the rights of indigenous groups. Nationwide, the groups have filed at least 40 lawsuits against the government, often over historical lands. Today the Panara are busy building their village, where they live in high-roofed huts arranged in a circle. It is a place where the men stride into the jungle at dawn with shotguns and return hours later with wild pig for dinner.
Women go off in pairs to gather staples such as cassava and a blueberry-like fruit called acai.
Lost traditions are returning. The group is cultivating five-acre fruit and vegetable gardens, a practice they had abandoned in the Xingu park. Women have returned to traditional haircuts, in which they shave a swath from the front of their heads to the back. The men are building a special hut that is their version of a town hall. The group is back up to 209 people, and its biggest worry is money.