There are several issues with the “Indigenous Peoples in Brazil” article in Wikipedia, beginning with the finer points and ending with the overall inclusion in the article. 

The finer points of the article, citations, punctuation, and the like, were some of the first noticeable issues in the article. First, starting with the lead itself, there is a general lack of citations in the article. There are entire sections in the article that do not have any citations, a clear violation of Wikipedia’s plagiarism code. In the “Origins” section, the author states: “To investigate this further, we applied…”, which shows that the author either took direct quotes from their references without changing the words or that they are using their own research, both of which are not allowed on Wikipedia. Second, the general punctuation of the article needs improved as well. There are several commas and quotation marks missing. Though I am not sure of the author’s origins, I believe that the article has been up long enough and has had enough commenters to have had this issue fixed earlier. Finally, on a good note, the references that were added did work, and I believe that all that was discussed in article had a cause to be there. 

Though the article gives a chronological history of Amerindians in Brazil, it does not give a complete history, showing a biased view. First, it gives a very European account of their history. It discusses the Portuguese takeover and destruction of Amerindians but does not show any Amerindian accounts. Secondly, it includes Portuguese activists that helped Indigenous cultures, yet does not discuss any important tribal leaders or activists. I find it very difficult to believe that there have been none or at least none discussed in popular culture. Finally, it gives little detail about the daily lives of indigenous cultures, now or in the past other than discussing whether they were hunter-gathers or agriculturalists. This article deals mainly with a European view of Amerindian culture. 

This article is a part of two very important WikiProjects: Indigenous Peoples of America and Brazil. It has received a C-Class rating on both, a High Importance rating by Indigenous Peoples of America and a Top Importance rating by Brazil. This article is obviously of great importance to Wikipedia. However, through looking through the talk page, there is a common theme of ignorant language and ignoring important information. First, while this is not as severe as another language issue, the original title of the article was “Indigenous People of Brazil”, making the tribes seem as one group and belonging to Brazil. This issue was remedied but shows that from the beginning, there has been trouble using correct language. Secondly, a line in the article stated that indigenous peoples could not learn to assimilate to Brazilian culture. After several comments against this line, the issue was fixed, again showing that ignorant language is used in an important project. Lastly, there is information missing in the article. A comment from 2011 asked about whether indigenous peoples were considered citizens and about their voting rights. This has still yet to be addressed, and this comment was made seven years ago. Though an important project, it has seemingly fallen by the wayside. 

From the basic components to the actual content, there are several issues with this article that must be addressed to be a good reference for those wishing to find information on the indigenous peoples of Brazil.