>> Thiss weekend, millions of
Brazilians will go to the polls
to vote in the final round of
the presidential election.
Which pits right wing incumbent
against former two-time
president Luis da silva.
That election could have huge
consequences for the Amazon rain
forest and the indigenous people
who live there.
Jane Ferguson traveled into the
Amazon for this story.
Produced in partnership with the
pulitzer center.
>> It is an indigenous version
of the olympics complete with
opening ceremony.
Here, every four years, 13
different indigenous communities
gather as young people compete,
age-old traditions of swimming
and tug-of-war.
Above all, these games are an
effort to keep their countries
alive at a time when the
cultures are under fierce
attacks says the local community
leader.
>> Our culture is being
assassinated by white culture.
They games really come to the
rescue so it is the utmost
important because the younger
generation can begin to
understand themselves.
It serves as a kind of
appreciation for our culture.
>> We were traveled to a tip of
land where the rivers nearly
meat.
In an indigenous community known
as Bella Franco.
Communities like this are
fighting to stay on their land.
>> We are at war with the
Brazilian government.
>> She has been struggling with
the rights of her community for
years and never as hard as
during the year the president
took office in 2019.
>> When he was campaigning in
the last elections, he said he
would not preserve even a
centimeter or millimeter of
indigenous land and territories
that are already being
threatened.
>> The territory is meant to be
protected from industries such
as mining or forest clearing to
go crops like soy or cattle.
The right-wing populist
president counts those
businesses as his loyalists.
To get elected he campaigned to
develop untouched land in the
Amazon and continues to do so.
One of his first acts was taking
federal bodies in charge of
indigenous rights and forest
conservation and moving them
from the justice ministry to the
agricultural ministry.
>> We don't sell our land
because it is like our mother.
Our territory is our body and if
we don't sell our body and we
don't sell her mother.
>> It has expanded a lot.
>> In a runoff for reelection,
the Amazon rain forest and its
people have become part of a
wider political battle.
Humanity's professor since it
stokes fears.
>> The economy in Brazil is
broken because of international
support.
And he appeals to that.
Because indigenous people will
extract the rich of the nation.
>> A British journalist and
conservation activist were
murdered in the Amazon
investigating illegal fishing.
The president's response was
unsympathetic.
>> Two people on a boat in a
completely wild region is an
adventure that is not
recommended to do.
Anything can happen.
It could be an accident or it
could be that they were
executed.
>> Environmentalists has seen an
uptick in brutal murders in
recent years.
Activists blamed the government
for not cracking down on the
violence and it worst, condoning
it.
>> There is a war against the
environment and against
indigenous people.
At least the Brazilian states
allows that to be made or very
often some policeman doing the
killing as a freelance job, for
example.
>> We meet with Alexandra who
continues to fight businesses
encroaching on her people's
land.
She showed us what her community
is up against, growing
industrial development.
It is a hub for much of the soy
grown upward and areas cleared
deeper in the forest.
That soy passes through here on
route such faraway states.
>> That is a Newport there.
>> So they are just expanding
all the way down.
>> It is a government project
and who gets in the way a lot.
They say these indigenous have
to move.
They are not to be here and
there isfor us.
>> They don't feel safe to stay
for more than a short time.
She is known here and abroad for
her indigenous activism.
>> Some of the men standing on
the port started filming us
filming them and making calls,
so we will move a little bit
further up the river.
>> All along the banks, signs of
development.
It is a logistics hub to
transport grains out of the
areas already cleared inside the
rain forest.
Even the mayor seems to be doing
well given the current
circumstances.
Since he came to power, illegal
mining, logging, and development
has boomed inside the Amazon
under a culture of impunity and
looking the other way.
>> We saw companies trying to
enter indigenous lands and
mining going further inside the
territory and very strong fires.
Land grabbing and threats.
We started seeing the rivers
dirtier and dirtier.
>> He has defended his policies,
arguing that indigenous people
have a right to prosper from the
development of the Amazon.
>> Some people both inside and
outside Brazil supported by
Ngo's have stubbornly insisted
on treat -- treating and keeping
our Indians as if they are real
cavemen.
The indigenous people don't want
to be landholders sitting on
rich lands.
>> With so much money at stake,
members of the community have
cooperated with developers,
selling land and working within
mining and agricultural
businesses.
>> Unfortunately among our
people and other people, there
is always a rotten apple,
somebody who wants things only
for themselves.
Some who live in the city
thought they could speak for our
people.
The children need to speak.
The women, the chiefs, the
warriors.
>> Two indigenous women in Sao
Paulo state.
But the party won the highest
number of congressional seats.
Their work ahead will be
difficult.
>> These two women have always
been from the movement.
They have always been women who
listen to us and suddenly these
women are there, sitting with
people who are against us.
It will be a challenge for them
but we will be there to always
give them strength.
>> She will need plenty of
strength herself.
She does not advertise her
movements and tends to travel
last minute but there is no
dying she is completely exposed
out here.
>> I will continue this life and
I will continue to defend my
territory, my people, my
children.
I will not stop now, even if
they kill me.
>> You have two sons and you
have children.
When you picture their future,
what do you see?
What do you hope for?
>> If today I am in this fight
and today there are these
attacks, it's because I'm
defending what is best for you.
Your future is the territory.
The river.
The forest.
>> Brazil's immediate political
future will be decided when
millions vote for their next
president.
That moment in political history
and the impact it has will reach
deep into the Amazon and to the
people fighting for both its
future and there's.
For the pbs newshour, I'm Jane