It's all so confusing: Elderly guy at Rio opposes renewable energy, makes racist comments, and leads a group armed with weapons; gets branded a "megastar" by The New York Times

Megastars of the Earth Summit - NYTimes.com

As for the estimated 1,500 indigenous people taking part in protests and sleeping in tents in the city’s samba stadium, the lion’s share of attention has gone to Raoni Metuktire, 82.
...On Thursday, he led a 500-strong march of indigenous people with bows and arrows to the center where the three-day United Nations conference is taking place. They were barred by more than 100 police and soldiers from entering....“I am very worried about the Belo Monte dam,” Raoni said. “Yesterday I spoke with the Brazilian environment minister. I told them not to build Belo Monte, because we indigenous who live on the edge of the Xingu River have our population growing. We need space. We need land.”

...The chief has also met with the likes of Jacques Chirac, the former French president, and the musician Sting during his stay.

Asked if he saw anything positive emerging from the Rio+20 conference, Raoni wagged his finger like a scolding professor: “What the white man is doing is destroying everything,” he said.