Up To 35 Illegal Diggers Feared Dead In Clash with Brazilian Indians

Native Indians may have killed up to 35 illegal Brazilian diamond diggers after the prospectors entered an Indian reservation in the north of the country in search for diamonds.

Heavily armed prospectors have entered the Roosevelt Indian reservation in Rondonia state, more than 2,100 miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro, hoping to recover the bodies of prospectors killed in a fight with Cinta Larga Indians on April 7.

Brazilian police said the prospectors have told them they have recovered 19 bodies so far and believe 35 were killed in total.

Government and state officials have agreed to send a federal task force to the region in an attempt to resolve the situation.

Tensions between prospectors and Indians have flared repeatedly in recent years as illegal diggers have searched for diamonds and other gemstones.

Brazilian law forbids mining on Indian reservations, but several native Indian chiefs are said to have become rich charging prospectors for access to reservations which are believed to contain South America's largest diamond reserves.