A NINETEENTH CENTURY BILL FOR INDIGENOUS EDUCATION

Abstract

In a biography of José da Natividade Saldanha, one of the leaders of the Confederation of Ecuador, Antônio Joaquim de Melo, the author, included a long note, which consists of three Indianist poems of his own, followed by a reflection on the indigenous question, with arguments and ideas that are surprisingly advanced for the time. The reflective part of this note concludes with a bill on indigenous education conceived by the author, a bill that, however, as far as we know, not only was not considered by the Provincial Assembly for which it was intended, but also remained practically hidden, as it was improperly introduced in a publication with a title and theme completely unrelated to the problems related to the role of Indigenous nations in Brazilian society. Given the unknown nature of this bill, as well as the virtual impossibility of accessing the text, it is reproduced here, preceded by a brief introductory contextualization and supplemented by some notes.