BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazilian native Indians yesterday took 100 workers hostage at the construction site of a  hydroelectric plant in the southern Amazon region, local media  reported.

As many as 400 Indians from several different tribes  occupied a power plant they say was built on an ancient burial  site.

“They didn’t take into account the situation of the  Indians. The company used dynamite to blow up part of an  archeological site,” Antonio Carlos Ferreira de Aquino, a local  administrator with the government’s agency of indigenous  affairs, Funai, told Folha.com.

Armed with bows and arrows, the Indians occupied the site  at dawn yesterday and confined the construction company’s  employees to their barracks.

There were no reports of injuries.

The Indians are demanding that government officials help  negotiate a settlement with the construction company.

“We want to be compensated for the construction of the  plant. The site is 30 kilometers (19 miles) from our reserve  and has caused great cultural and social impact in our  community, not to mention environmental damage,” Aldeci Arara,  a tribal leader, told the G1 news portal.

The Dardanelos dam on the Aripuana river, some 400  kilometers (250 miles) north of the Mato Grosso state capital  Cuiaba, was due to come online in January 2011, the media  reports said. The construction company told G1.com that it has been in  touch with Funai to define a community development program for  the local native Indians.

The company was not immediately available for comment.