Cacique Orides

a portrait of the indigenous resistance in the West of Santa Catarina State

Abstract

This article aims to examine the political trajectory and the tactics and strategies employed by cacique Kaingang Orides Belino Correia da Silva, who between 2000 and 2003, was vice-mayor and mayor, for a short period in Ipuaçu-SC. Coming from an indigenous leaders family, Funai employee, Orides took over the Xapecó Indigenous Land cacique in 1999, implementing structural changes in his community. In 2000 he was elected vice-mayor and in 2002 he took over the Ipuaçu City Hall, becoming the first indigenous mayor of the Brazil southern region. Investigating the Orides performance in the political-institutional circuit, we intend to observe the benefits achieved for his community from his political acting. The sources used in this article are newspaper publications, with which the political relations episodes of Orides cacique are chronologically organized.