Brazil has 1.7 million Indigenous people, near double the count from prior census, government says

By DAVID BILLER and FABIANO MAISONNAVE
Associated Press

BELEM, Brazil (AP) — The diminutive woman with a white feather headdress was standing on the stage of the majestic colonial theater in Brazil’s Amazon and addressing the crowd. Minister of Indigenous People Sonia Guajajara declared the day “the milestone of Indigenous participation,” then cited the national statistics institute’s freshly released census data that revealed the full scope of the nation’s Indigenous population: 1,693,535 people. While just 0.8% of Brazil’s population, the figure marks an 89% jump from the prior census, in 2010. “This a historic moment with that picture that the statistics agency has done,” she said on the eve of the two-day Amazon Summit in this city.