“And from all this work, the result is that the indian becomes a better indian”

state guardianship and the action of the SPI among the Potiguara in Paraíba

Abstract

This article addresses the state guardianship project imprinted on the activities of the Indian Protection Service (SPI) and how its operation redirected the State's way of relating to indigenous populations in the 20th century. Based on the analysis of official documents from the indigenous body, as well as the legislation that was in force during the period, we discuss the creation of the SPI, under the ideological foundations established in the new century, its local action fronts, the indigenous posts (PI), and how , specifically, occurred during the implementation and operation of the IP Nísia Brasileira among the Potiguara, in Baía da Traição/Paraíba. The analysis presented in the work crosses the debates on internal colonialism and coloniality, from the perspective that the SPI's protective action among indigenous people reproduced colonial relations, but updated in the context of the creation of National States. In this sense, the indigenous project of transforming the indigenous person into a national worker became visible, operating through the posts to homogenize these individuals into the standard of citizens of the Republic, whose social place consists of contributing to the progress and economic development of the Nation.