A group of Roberts friends visited an Indian reservation last week. They had cookies. They shared. It was the most delicious thing the Indian kids had ever tasted.
Brazil allows the Indians to have reservations, but with a few conditions. These conditions are codified in Brazilian law. Brazil produces laws as coherent as any massive pseudo-democratic Latin-American bureaucracy could be expected to produce.
I am unable to find anyone who knows exactly what these laws are, but the basic summary is "Maintain a traditional lifestyle or we sell your land to the plantations"
There are restrictions about who can visit the Indians and when. There are restrictions on imports and exports to the Indians. There is a flat prohibition on preaching any non-indigenous religion.
The entire tribe is already Christian? Too bad, they have to pretend to be pagans. And the UNESCO people are coming next month so pretend HARD! Not even the Indians are allowed to preach on their reservation.
The nearest allowable church is a ten mile walk, because cars are also nonexistent.
Traditional methods of food production relied heavily on fishing and hunting. This part of the rainforest survived industrialization. The rivers and big game did not.
Their primary source of income is tourism. Indians are not currently in style in Brazil so their primary source of income is not currently producing income.
The Indians break the rules whenever they can and any government agent with a bit of common sense is happy to look the other way. Still, their lack of exposure to cookies seems to indicate that they could use some help with breaking rules.
Today we rent a flatbed truck and load it with broken rules.
We are not allowed to deliver this to the Indians. So we don't. If we did, I wouldn't be publishing it online. Only idiots brag about that kind of thing on the internet.
Check back soon for an exciting turn of events in "The Cookie Smugglers, Part 2"
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