PROUD and full of the confidence of a leader of men, Chief Marcos Veron of the Brazilian Guarani Indians stood, daubed with the colourful paints of his tribe, before North-East school pupils yesterday.

And cried.

He cried for the plight of his people back home in the Amazon jungle, as he described their very real, daily fear of the ranchers' guns.

And, perhaps, he cried a little in gratitude for the three North-East charity workers who had helped some of his people to overcome the fear of being murdered so that they could reclaim the land that had once been theirs.

It was for those three people that this man - a man who, like a bright summer flower in the winter snow, obviously did not belong - had allowed himself to be plucked from the tropical jungle to come to the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Girls School in Newcastle.

These three Catholic overseas charity workers had helped persuade 300 Indian men, women and children that they could jump over a ranchers' fence to reclaim the land that had been theirs 40 years before.

"There's no way you would ever believe they could have found it within themselves to do it," said one of the three Cafod charity workers, Peter Mulligan, of Chester-le-Street, in County Durham.

Peter had gone to the rainforest of Brazil where the Guarani Indians had lived, on a fact-finding mission. The Indians had been forcibly ejected from the land that had been historically theirs by the ranchers who cut down the trees, sold the timber and then installed huge numbers of cows to satisfy the West's huge appetite for beefburgers.

Peter had been shocked by what he had seen. "The Indians were in a terrible state and had remained on the makeshift camp where they were first dumped 40 years before so the ranchers could level the land," he said. "There were the sure signs of malnutrition among the children for a start. Then there was the drink - you would see bottles of rum lying around the place. But the main thing was this heavy atmosphere around the place. They seemed listless.

"We would quietly hint about their chief and the fact that he was corrupt, that he had been given two cattle while they starved. We even knew that he had led assassins to the camp who had killed a young emerging leader. He was a rival who was trying to persuade them to reclaim their land.

"But, to me, it was like a car left to rust for 40 years. It was never going to start. We let them know that there are full-time highly committed legal people who would stand up for them within Brazil and that we would pay. But we had little hope."

It was at that point that Peter and his colleagues, Kathleen Scullion and Pat Devlin, from Cafod, visited another small tribe of Guarani who had actually stared down the barrel of a rancher's gun and moved back on to their land. They found it to be a happier place - although it was one that had had to confront the tough realities it faced.

Said Peter: "I remember asking one young guy what his stick was for. To him it was like asking what a wallet was for. It was made with the purpose of striking a fatal blow against the temple of a white man who wanted to take the land away."

It was a shockingly violent reply, but the tribe's actions had had a positive effect on its members.

"That horrible drift of young families who go to beg in the cities or become prostitutes had been stopped," said Peter. "There was a real sense of purpose. The contrast was unbelievable."

An example of the happier, more fulfilled atmosphere came when the local leader had had to decide which of the 12 braves were to receive the Middlesbrough Football Club caps donated by the club to Peter.

"To him it was obvious," said Peter, "the only way to decide was to hold an archery competition. It was good fun but a serious business. Those arrows are poisoned and this was important practice."

Eventually, Peter and his colleagues returned home late in 1998, determined to instigate a letter-writing campaign on behalf of the "free Indians" they had seen. Brazilian local authorities are more likely to protect the rights of Indians if they know they have the support of people across the rich, economically important western world.

Then Peter learned something that came like a bolt from the blue. He was told that the first tribe had been taken over by Chief Marcos Veron, who had previously assisted 12 other small tribes to take back what was rightfully theirs. With the words of the Cafod workers about the new legal system, which recognised some Indian rights, ringing in their ears, Chief Veron had persuaded a few tribesmen to make the leap of faith. They jumped over the fence back on to the land that had been theirs generations previously. The land had been devastated by the clearance, but soon the rest of the tribe followed and began rebuilding.

However, the actions of Chief Veron have again meant that his people are under serious threat from the ranchers who want the land back for their cows. A couple of months ago, one of his tribes was rounded up by the ranchers' hired hands. They were thrown bodily on to the back of trucks, driven off the land and dumped miles away by a roadside. Where they were dumped has now become an impromptu camp. Begging and prostitution again beckon the Indians.

Yesterday, Chief Veron himself explained how it meant both spiritual and economic devastation to his people. Speaking through an interpreter, he said: "We are preparing for a war. But I said to my people before I left to keep calm. I am going to seek support from England."

At that point he broke down. He had seen what dispossession meant.

The suicide rate among young Indians, even younger than the sixth formers who faced Chief Veron yesterday, illustrates just how devastating it is.

Three hundred suicides have been officially recorded among the Indian people in the last year, many of them children.

Children like Luciane Ortiz who was just nine years old when she was found hanging from a beam in her thatched home.

Her mother, Rosalino Ortiz, had explained to Chief Veron why her daughter had committed suicide. She had said: "In the old days we were free. We are no longer free. So our young people look around and think there is nothing left and think how they can live. That is when they are lost and when they commit suicide."

l A book entitled Disinherited, published with Cafod's help, about the plight of the Guarani is currently on sale in bookshops. It charts the history of the tribe since the Portuguese invaded Brazil 500 years ago.