The court has upheld a ruling preventing gas companies from prospecting on people's land without permission, but threw out a series of lawsuits complaining of the nuisance created by their operations.
The far-right government of President Jair Bolsonaro has instituted new policies that put indigenous land rights and health services under threat.
Communities made up of fugitive slave descendants have been forced from their lands and denied their rights, a situation that may only get worse under newly elected president Jair Bolsonaro.