An Amazonian Indian woman with a machete during the protest by indigenous people in Altamira, Brazil. AP via independent.co.uk

Reporting by Raymond Colitt; Editing by Cynthia Osterman
Sun Jul 25, 2010 5:45pm EDT BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian native Indians on Sunday took 100 workers hostage at the construction site of a hydroelectric plant in the southern Amazon region, local media reported. As many as 400 Indians from several different tribes occupied a power plant they say was built on an ancient burial site. “They didn’t take into account the situation of the Indians. The company used dynamite to blow up part of an archeological site,” Antonio Carlos Ferreira de Aquino, a local administrator with the government’s agency of indigenous affairs, Funai, told Folha.com. Armed with bows and arrows, the Indians occupied the site at dawn on Sunday and confined the construction company’s employees to their barracks. There were no reports of injuries. The Indians are demanding that government officials help negotiate a settlement with the construction company. “We want to be compensated for the construction of the plant. The site is 30 kilometers (19 miles) from our reserve and has caused great cultural and social impact in our community, not to mention environmental damage,” Aldeci Arara, a tribal leader, told the G1 news portal. …

Brazilian Indians take hostages at Amazon dam site