Dam the Rivers, Damn the People Development and Resistance in Amazonian Brazil Resource Type: Book Published: 1990 Cummings describes Amazonia as a colony whose resources are exploited by and 'exported' to the country's industrial south. As a result of the encroachment on their rainforest land, the peoples of Amazonia, particularly the Amazonia Indians, have suffered death, displacement, loss of self-sufficiency and exposure to disease.