Sistema político, cidadania e posse indígena na história constitucional brasileira: uma análise a partir do litígio sobre terras dos Kadiwéu no Mato Grosso dos anos 50
constitution; indigenous lands; citizenship
This thesis seeks to investigate the trajectory of the category of indigenous ownership in Brazilian constitutional history and its passage through the political system and citizenship defined for indigenous people, based on the analysis of the dispute over the Kadiwéu lands, judged by the Federal Supreme Court in 1961 and which referred to the constitutionality of Law No. 1,077 of 1958, which was approved by the State of Mato Grosso and reduced the limits of this indigenous land, in the south of that state. The case became a major scandal over the state's alienation of lands occupied by indigenous people. As a result of the institutional framework adopted by the First Republic, the Kadiwéu, who were protected, depended on the actions of the SPI to defend their lands. The institution filed a writ of mandamus arguing the unconstitutionality of the law, which was definitively assessed by the Federal Supreme Court in 1961, in an extraordinary appeal presented by the state Legislative Assembly. The litigation was permeated by debates across the definition of indigenous ownership, the property of these areas in the Brazilian federalist system, the ability of indigenous people to hold property rights and the economic use of these territories, discussions that crossed the political system and the constitutional debate during the period. In the trial, the dissenting vote of Judge Victor Nunes Leal defined notions such as habitation, territory, a legal status distinct from civil status to deal with the possession and control of lands occupied by indigenous people and brought innovations to the concept, which influenced the stabilization of the issue in the reforms institutions of the 1960s. The case exposes the tension between indigenous ownership and boundaries in this period of the Brazilian constitutional history, the delineation of the concept of indigenous land and its dominance. Its analysis contributes to the reflection on the limitations of civil institutes aimed at resolving land conflicts and on the constitution of legal transactions over these territories. By observing the litigation from Brazilian constitutional history, the research seeks to contribute to the topic from a historiographical perspective of law and concludes by crossing the political system and a condition of limited citizenship in defining the concept of indigenous lands.