Indigenous peoples in Brazil facts for kids

Indigenous peoples in Brazil (Portuguese: povos indígenas no Brasil) or Indigenous Brazilians (Portuguese: indígenas brasileiros) once comprised an estimated 2000 tribes and nations inhabiting what is now the country of Brazil, prior to the European contact around 1500. Christopher Columbus thought he had reached the East Indies, but Portuguese Vasco da Gama had already reached India via the Indian Ocean route, when Brazil was invaded by Portugal. Nevertheless, the word índios ("Indians") was by then established to designate the people of the New World and continues to be used in the Portuguese language to designate these people, while a person from India is called indiano in order to distinguish the two.

At the time of European contact, some of the Indigenous people were traditionally semi-nomadic tribes who subsisted on hunting, fishing, gathering and migrant agriculture. Many tribes suffered extinction as a consequence of the European settlement and many were assimilated into the Brazilian population.

The Indigenous population was decimated by European diseases, declining from a pre-Columbian high of 2 to 3 million to some 300,000 as of 1997^[update], distributed among 200 tribes. By the 2010 IBGE census, 817,000 Brazilians classified themselves as Indigenous. A 1985 linguistic survey found 188 living indigenous languages with 155,000 total speakers.

On January 18, 2007, FUNAI reported 67 remaining uncontacted tribes in Brazil, up from 40 known in 2005. With this addition Brazil passed New Guinea, becoming the country with the largest number of uncontacted peoples in the world.

Images for kids

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  Xingu, an Indigenous territory of Brazil

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  Apiacá people, painted by Hércules Florence, 1827

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  Indigenous girl of the Terena tribe

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  Terena people

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  Distribution of Tupi and Tapuia people on the coast of Brazil, on the eve of colonialism in the 16th century

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  Debret: Guaicuru cavalry charge, 1822

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  Map of indigenous territories in Brazil.

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  Iracema Painting (1909), by Antônio Parreiras (1850-1937), classic representation of the native Iracema who falls in love with the European colonizer

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  A Tamoio Warrior depicted by Jean-Baptiste Debret in the early 19th century.

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  Marshal Cândido Rondon.

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  Members of an uncontacted tribe encountered in the Brazilian state of Acre in 2009

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  Fulni-ô representative talks about the culture of his people to schoolchildren in the Botanical Garden of Brasilia, in celebration of Indian Day, 2011

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  Indigenous protesters from Vale do Javari

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  Two indigenous men

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  A Brazilian indigenous family

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  Burial urn

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  Marajoara bowl

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  Marajoara vase

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  Funerary urn

See also

In Spanish: Pueblos indígenas de Brasil para niños