Brazilian indigenous speak out as Amazon fires rage

As fires raged in parts of the Amazon, Mydje Kayapo sat in a small boat looking out over the Curua River in the Bau indigenous reserve.

The smell of smoke filled the air, and Kayapo was worried.

"The fire is coming closer and closer to our reserve," he told a visiting news team from The Associated Press.

"Now it is about 20 kilometers (12 miles) away."
It's being badly destroyed," Kayapo said. "We indigenous people need to be united."
"Indians don't have a (political) lobby, they don't speak our language, but they have managed to get 14 per cent of our national territory."
"With the Amazon burning, this is the largest (fire) that has ever happened and the smoke is coming here. Today the sky is clean, but two days ago it was full of smoke and hot."
At the same time, French President Emmanuel Macron has engaged in an increasingly personal feud with his Brazilian counterpart, while Chilean President Sebastin Piera said Latin America countries "have sovereignty over the Amazon."
"We are resilient. If there is an invasion in our reserve, if they try to come here ... we will react against the Bolsonaro government and say: 'Not here. This reserve has an owner.'"
In an Aug. 24 video posted to YouTube, one indigenous woman wearing face paint and a headdress addressed the camera and also vowed to "resist for the sake of the forest, for our way of living."