View source for Enxet

{{Short description|Group of indigenous people in South America}}
{{for|the language|Enxet language}}
{{more citations needed|date=December 2009}}
[[Image:Le Tour du monde-04-p109.jpg|thumb|200px|Enxet people in an engraving of 1861 published in [[Le Tour du Monde]].]]

The '''Enxet''' are an [[indigenous people]] of about 17,000 living in the [[Gran Chaco]] region of western [[Paraguay]]. Originally [[hunter-gatherer]]s, many are now forced to supplement their livelihood as laborers on the cattle ranches that have encroached upon their dwindling natural forest habitat.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/enxet|title=Enxet|last=International|first=Survival|website=www.survivalinternational.org|access-date=2016-05-25}}</ref> Nevertheless, the Enxet are engaged in an ongoing conflict with the government and ranchers,<ref name=":0" /> who want to destroy what remains of the forest to open the land for massive settlement. Today,{{When|date=June 2024}} only a handful of Enxet are still maintain their traditional way of life, while the majority live in small settlements sponsored by various [[missionary]] organizations.<ref name=":0" /> The [[Enxet language|Enxet]] and [[Enlhet language|Enlhet]] languages are still vigorous.

==Land ownership==
<!-- the history of the Govts of Paraguay and Bolivia taking the land, and the war between the countries is all relevant  -->
In 2006, 90 Enxet families, the Sawhoyamaxa, won a legal battle to 14,404 hectares of their traditional lands, bought up by [[Heribert Roedel]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.survivalinternational.org/news/10283 | title=Land at last for Indians evicted by fraudster }}</ref>  The land was signed over in 2011.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7776 | title=Two decades of legal battles, but land at last }}</ref>

== Lingering Effects of the Chaco War on the Enxet People ==
The Enxet tribe suffered devastating blows during the [[Chaco War]] period (1932-1935). The Chaco War was fought between [[Bolivia]] and [[Paraguay]] over control of natural resources in the Chaco region of South America. The front of this war stretched directly through Chaco territory, ravaging ancestral lands and severely disrupting cultural way of life.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Kalisch |first=Hannes |title=Don't cry! the Enlhet history of the Chaco War |last2=Unruh |first2=Ernesto |date=2022 |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |isbn=978-0-2280-1173-6 |location=Montreal Kingston London Chicago}}</ref>

During the military colonization of Chaco, the Enxet verbal history was damaged, as members of the tribe were killed before sharing their history.<ref name=":03">{{Cite book |last=Kalisch |first=Hannes |title=Don't cry! the Enlhet history of the Chaco War |last2=Unruh |first2=Ernesto |date=2022 |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |isbn=978-0-2280-1173-6 |location=Montreal Kingston London Chicago}}</ref> To make matters worse, they were struck with a brutal [[smallpox]] epidemic in 1932, which resulted in the deaths of nearly half of the Enxet population.<ref name=":03" /> The Paraguayans also abused the Enxet natives, with a first hand Enxet report stating: "They {Paraguayans} wanted the women. If a man refused they would kill him, even if he was a leader. The Paraguayans had no qualms about shooting an Enxet."<ref name=":03" /> Though no conscription is overly reported, the Enxet population was targeted by both Bolivia and Paraguay due to fears revolving around the Natives being spies.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ehrinpreis |first=Andrew |date=April 2020 |title=Green Gold, Green Hell:<i>Coca, Caste, and Class in the Chaco War, 1932–1935</i> |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/tam.2019.110 |journal=The Americas |volume=77 |issue=2 |pages=217–245 |doi=10.1017/tam.2019.110 |issn=0003-1615|url-access=subscription }}</ref> This would lead to further devastation among the populace of the [[Gran Chaco|Chaco region]].

In the aftermath of Paraguay's victory in the Chaco War, the government became more committed to settling and developing the Chaco.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kidd |first=Stephen W. |date=February 1995 |title=Land, Politics and Benevolent Shamanism: The Enxet Indians in a Democratic Paraguay |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022216x00010166 |journal=Journal of Latin American Studies |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=43–75 |doi=10.1017/s0022216x00010166 |issn=0022-216X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Subsequently, much of Enxet land would be divided, deforested, and given to cattle farmers.<ref name=":1">{{Citation |last=Correia |first=Joel E. |title=Chapter 3: Biopolitics of Neglect |date=2023-04-04 |work=Disrupting the Patrón: Indigenous Land Rights and the Fight for Environmental Justice in Paraguay’s Chaco |pages=80–100 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.151.g |access-date=2024-11-15 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-39310-3}}</ref> The deforestation coupled with the overgrazing of cattle left the land forever scarred.<ref name=":1" /> Today, the Enxet hold title to approximately 2.8 percent of the area they occupied before the start of the Chaco War.<ref name=":04">{{Cite book |last=Kalisch |first=Hannes |title=Don't cry! the Enlhet history of the Chaco War |last2=Unruh |first2=Ernesto |date=2022 |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |isbn=978-0-2280-1173-6 |location=Montreal Kingston London Chicago}}</ref> Their population has yet to recover, and is currently only about 8,200 strong.<ref name=":04" />

===Court case, water and other rights===
The right to water was considered in the [[Inter-American Court of Human Rights]] case of the ''Sawhoyamaxa Indigenous Community v. Paraguay''.<ref name=para>[http://www.escr-net.org/sites/default/files/Judgment%2C%20Case%20of%20the%20Sawhoyamaxa%20Indigenous%20Community%20v.%20Paraguay.pdf ''Sawhoyamaxa Indigenous Community v. Paraguay''] (Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 29 March 2006).</ref> The issues involved the states failure to acknowledge indigenous communities' property rights over ancestral lands.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}  In 1991, the state removed the indigenous Sawhoyamaxa community from the land resulting in their loss of access to water, food, schooling and health services.<ref name=para/> This fell within the scope of the [[American Convention on Human Rights]]; article 4, encroaching the right to life.<ref>{{cite web |title=American Convention on Human Rights  |publisher=Inter-American Commission on Human Rights |date=22 November 1969 |url=http://www.cidh.org/Basicos/English/Basic3.American%20Convention.htm |access-date=26 May 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130618195529/http://www.cidh.org/Basicos/English/Basic3.American%20Convention.htm |archive-date=18 June 2013 }}</ref>  Water is included in this right, as part of access to land. The courts required the lands to be returned, compensation provided, and basic goods and services to be implemented, while the community was in the process of having their lands returned.<ref>[http://www.escr-net.org/node/365163f], International Network for Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, Case of Sawhoyamaxa Indigenous Community v. Paraguay.</ref>

===Re-occupation===
In 2013, the land still not being vacated, the Sawhoyamaxa re-occupied the land.<ref name="Graun">{{Cite news |last=Hill |first=David |date=2014-10-07 |title=Paraguay's Supreme Court issues 'historic' land ruling |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/andes-to-the-amazon/2014/oct/07/paraguay-supreme-court-historic-land-ruling |access-date=2024-06-28 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

===Supreme court ruling===
In 2014 the Paraguay Supreme Court rejected a claim that government expropriation of the land (in order to transfer it to the Sawhoyamaxa), was unconstitutional.<ref name="Graun" />

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Ethnic groups in Paraguay}}
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[[Category:Ethnic groups in Paraguay]]
[[Category:Indigenous peoples of the Gran Chaco]]
[[Category:Indigenous peoples in Paraguay]]


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