Indigenous health and nursing in Roraima in the 1970s.

OBJECTIVE To analyze the strategies undertaken by the government to address the health problem in Boa Vista/Roraima. METHOD A study using the microhistory approach, with documentary sources from journalistic material of the 1970s through the triangulation technique: texts, images and context, with analysis from the perspective of the Social World Theory. RESULTS It was evidenced that the strategies undertaken by the government occurred in favor of the exploration of isolated areas in Roraima that demanded settlement processes, construction of villages and a highway to enable the interconnection of the state with other regions of Brazil, with a smoke screen symbolic effect produced by nurses on indigenous health. CONCLUSION There was governmental manipulation, when the symbolic power was unveiled, making it possible to see and believe that nursing needs to guide political issues rather than being ruled.