The following work is based on a post-dam-rupture of Mariana (2015), in which context the native people of Doce river enunciated the death of the river (Watú Kuém). The objective is to investigate the meanings of such claim and contrast these answers with the legal field that quickly formed a web of actions that was known as “Mariana case” in order to repair de “damage caused”. After seven months of fieldwork we offer a perspectivist approach of native’s relation to the river, and we reflect upon the cosmological and ontological conflict found in the contrast with the legal framework.