1} that 3,000 Makiritére... have the right to a surface of 100,000 km..." (Coppens, 1972, p. 6). Heated court battles ensued with the government essentially evading the real issue and refusing to take sides. According to Coppens (1972, p. 17) the real motive of the gcvernment was not to develop the land as a "cooperative" but a "pretext to seize Surreptitiously the...region," anda smokescreen to openly and arbitrarily colonize (cf. Siverts, 1972). As of late 1972, the colonists withdrew and the land was being incorporated under the jurisdiction of the National Agrarian Reform. enable colonization to Ultimately this will "officially" take place, with the intent to fully assimilate the Makiritare and bordering tribes. All of this is occurring in an area that Venezuelans once considered "tierra baldia"-uncultivated waste Bikini Atoll, In 1946, in Marshall lana. Islands* the small community that inhabited Bikini Atoll the northern Marshall Islands, United States Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, was relocated when its ancestral homeland wes selected as 4 first nuclear ; I am especially grateful for Robert Kiste, Anthropology, of qua the United States the University of Minnesota, information contained in 9011] v2 test site in Department of for providing me with this the section.