‘They all here call me índio’: Indigenous identification and the criminal justice system in Northern Minas Gerais

Abstract

Abstract The article analyses the interaction between the criminal justice system and persons of the Xakriabá Indigenous people facing criminal prosecution in the Manga district in Northern Minas Gerais. To do so, I draw on the material gathered in the fieldwork I carried out in the region in early 2020, as well as on current legislation, selected jurisprudence from the Supreme Court, and documents produced by the bodies responsible for the criminal and prison policies in Brazil. I argue in the paper that the category of 'Indigenous person' mobilized by state agents differs from that conceived by the Xakriabá themselves, and that this dissonance often implies the lack of ethnic recognition of these persons throughout the criminal process and the failure to record their presence in official prison management documents. As a consequence, what is seen is the violation of the right to self-identification and the non-enforcement of legal guarantees granted to all Indigenous persons by the Brazilian legal system.