Google on guard: your jungle home security system.

• Author: Walker, Jesse
• Position: Citings - Brief article

WHEN THE government failed to enforce their land rights, the Surui Indians of northwestern Brazil found a more reliable ally: Google.

Property rights in Brazil are a mess of competing claims, with ranchers, rubber tappers, Indians, and landless squatters all scrambling to mark what they think should be theirs. Indians traditionally have gotten the short end of the stick, though that has changed somewhat in the last couple of decades, as indigenous protests and international pressure have compelled the government to recognize some tribal land rights. Today more than 12 percent of the country is reserved for Indians.

But it is one thing to recognize a right and another thing to enforce it. Loggers, miners, and others still eat away at the boundaries of Indian territory. The resulting conflicts have often turned violent, an outcome exacerbated by the remoteness of much of the land. In a country where it is still possible to discover small tribes that have avoided any contact with the white man, the government simply can't keep track of the encroachments, even when it wants to do so.

But...