OF THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON
Prior to the Europeans arriving
in Brazil in 1500, this was a country with a population of
between eight and thirteen million people, consisting of
approximately 1,000 tribes.
However, Brazil was faced with 500 years of violence,
depression, and disease, which wiped out most of the
Today about 350,000 Brazilian Indians will exist,
which are spread out over 200 tribes.
These tribes of the Brazilian
Amazon can be found throughout the country.
There are more than 100 different tribal languages
spoken, depending on the region.
In addition, these tribes vary dramatically in size,
as you will discover. For
example, the Yanomami and Guarani tribes have members
ranging in the tens of thousands while there are tribes such
as the Kanoe and Akuntsu, which consist of 30 members or
The tribes of the Brazilian
Amazon also live in varied environments.
Some of the tribes exist in the grassland, some in
the beautiful, tropical rainforests, some in semi-desert
regions, and some in the scrub.
Because of this, the way of survival is extremely
interesting fact about these Indians is that depending on
the region where they live and the specific tribe they
belong, they have had different experiences with outsiders.
Take the Guarani for instance. These Indians live in the south where the environment is very
particular tribe has been connected with the “white
people” for over 500 years. The other end of the spectrum is that the majority of the
Brazilian tribes have never encountered outsiders. Typically, these Brazilian tribes live by hunting, gathering
and growing plants to use as both food and for medicinal
purposes, and finding other objects such as wood and rocks
to create things, some to live with and some to sell.
It has now been 500 years since
the European invasion whereby the tribes lost many lives and
much of their prized land.
Even today, these Brazilian tribes are being attacked
and killed. Because
there is an epidemic of racism in Brazil toward these
Indians and them still being considered minors, they fight
for everything they have.
Unfortunately, they are deemed “second class”
citizens and are not even given the right to be land owners.
While there are many tribes
living in Brazil who have little to no outside contact, the
tribes that are the most isolated include the Maku and Awa.
The Maku Indians live in the northwest region of
Brazil, which is relatively close to the Peruvian border.
Considered a nomadic tribe, the Maku have a trekking
lifestyle that sadly, has eroded over the years into more of
an agricultural life, caused primarily from influences of
Western civilization. To
hunt, the Maku use blowguns made from the Stilt Palm and
poison-tipped darts. Although
they hunt for various animals in the rainforest, monkeys is
a primary source of food.
The Awa are truly the last of
all nomadic tribes in Brazil.
They live in the eastern forests of the Amazon and
due to modern changes, are in danger of extinction.
The Awa left a settled life around 1800 due to
violent attacks by European invaders.
Today, many of the Indians from the Awa tribe live in
established villages set up by the government.
Even so, they still hunt and gather plants to
this band only has about 30 members and when out traveling,
they keep the fire embers burning so they can simply start a
new fire when they arrive at the new location.
Sadly, the Awa tribe has been
the victim of extermination over the past 100 years by
ranchers and settlers. In fact, many of the Indians living today are survivors of
horrific massacres, leaving them frightened and traumatized.
To help the Awa people, the Brazilian government set
up special territories and collected money but even so, the
Indians remain fearful of industrialization.
Other tribes of the Brazilian
Amazon include the Kanamari, Kazinawa, Marubo, Makuxi, Matis,
Tenharim, Tikuna, Tukano, and Waimiri-Atroari, among others.
The Kanamari is a population of around 650 that live
primarily on the rubber and agriculture industries.
When this particular tribe was discovered, they were
found to be old but rich in song, dance, and traditions.
Sadly, extreme alcohol has been a leading factor in
this tribe’s demise.
The Kaxinawa tribe is a little
larger, consisting of more than 2,500 people.
Having migrated from Peru, this tribe also known as
Huni Kuin”, translates to “real people”.
The Kaxinawa were first discovered in 1948, living in
Making a living in rubber, they have suffered
horrific genocide while being forced into slave labor.
In fact, in 1951, approximately 80% of the tribe was
For the Marubo tribe, they too
were directly related to rubber trade but heavily in debt
with traders, which left them with broken communities.
Each family was required to live on their own,
collecting rubber to survive. When the rubber economy collapsed in 1937, the Marubo
declined in numbers even more.
However, the Marubo tribe of Brazil is a leading
force of the native movement occurring in this country,
fighting hard to stop new highways from being constructed,
along with exploration of oil and gas that would destroy
even more of their precious land.
The Makuxi survive primarily on
farming and hunting. They
live in a hilly region that borders Brazil and Guyana.
In all, there are approximately 24,000 members of
this tribe. The
Makuxi each believe they are direct descendants of the
Ingariko tribe, which are thought to be the children of the
sun who were responsible for leaving their descendents the
gift of fire, along with hardship and disease.
The land where this tribe lives is magnificent.
With all four seasons, they can raise cattle, build
houses, and enjoy family life.
The only downtime for the Makuxi is in the rainy
season, which makes activities very difficult.
For the Matis tribe, there are
only around 120 members still in existence.
They too survive on fishing and hunting.
The Matis tribe is known for wearing facial ornaments
that are believed to be mystical homage to the jaguar and
for their incredible hunting skills. In fact, they use blow guns that can be accurate up to 95
accurate, the Matis tribe is known for being able to kill in
hummingbird in flight.
However, there has been little to no contact with
this tribe so there is not much known about their lives.
Although the population had begun to decline, in
recent years, there has been a slight increase.
Next is the Tenharim tribe of
Brazil, which is also small, around 250 people. Known
as masters in the ability to combine color and textures
using small feathers, they also depend on hunting and
the Paco Robbanne, they use small bamboo tubes used to crush
dried flowers into a very, fine powder.
With this, the flowers are sprinkled onto their
bodies after bathing in the river, thus ecological perfume.
They are also known as Boca Negra, which translates
to “black mouth” because of the corporal painting
The Tikuna Indian tribe has
more than 20,000 members and lives in the Brazilian Amazon
rain forest that borders Colombia and Peru.
In all, 70 villages are established in the Alto
Solimones area near the Solimones and Santo Antonio do Ica
Rivers. Of all
Brazilian tribes, this was one of the first to have been
discovered some 400 years ago by conquistadors.
The Tikuna people are very talented, making wood and
stone sculptures, bark cloth, baskets, and even masks.
With the fabric, they make canvases on which
beautiful paintings are created, doll clothes, masks, and
even clothing for the tribal members.
Then there is the Tukano
Indians, which live in various regions of Brazil and have a
population around 5,500. Dominated by several religious mission groups and suffering
from Malaria and violent attacks, the population went
through a very difficult time of survival.
With this tribe, the men will take wives from other
groups who keep their native language.
Because of that, the children will often know five or
more languages. As
a determined tribe, they create amazing ceramic pieces with
two specific design categories.
First is the abstract designs that consist of lines,
dots, spirals, triangles, and diamond shapes.
The second are motifs that include birds, lizards,
frogs, snakes, fish, bats, and son on.
For a sophisticated look, sometimes the two distinct
designs will be combined.
Finally, there is the
Waimiri-Atroari tribe of the Brazilian Amazon with a
population close to 1,000. These Indians live very, deep into the Amazon rainforest in
the northern region of the country.
First discovered some 300 years ago, when the tribe
was first approached, they were a feared people.
However, by 1977, they had surrendered some to the
government for the Pan American Highway to be constructed.
The result however was about two-thirds of their
population was erased.