Villas Boas, Orlando

▪ 2003

      Brazilian explorer and Indian rights activist (b. Jan. 12, 1914, near Botucatu, Braz.—d. Dec. 12, 2002, São Paulo, Braz.), was a leading advocate of the rights of indigenous Brazilians. In the early 1940s Villas Bôas, along with three of his brothers, joined a government expedition to chart areas for future development in the Amazon and central-western Brazil. Over the next two decades, the brothers established Western civilization's first contact with numerous indigenous tribes. In 1961 Villas Bôas helped found Xingu National Park, a preserve for Brazil's Indians, including the Tchikao, who were threatened with extinction. He served as the park's first director. With his brother Claudio, Villas Bôas wrote 12 books, and the two were twice nominated for the Nobel Prize for Peace, in 1971 and again in 1975. Villas Bôas also received the Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1967.

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