Nambicuara - History and Cultural Relations

There is no trustworthy information as to from where the Nambicuara arrived and when they first settled in their homeland. The first European contact was evidently with Antonio Pires de Campos, who found them at their current location between 1718 and 1723. The first ethnographic description of the group was provided by Karl von den Steinen at the end of the nineteenth century, although they are considered to have been "officially" discovered by Rondon in 1907 and first described by Edgar Roquette-Pinto. Contact with the group was often difficult, as they were considered fierce and aggressive and often were at war with neighboring groups. Later in the twentieth century, Nambicuara groups suffered relocation and further depopulation as the result of non-Indian migration into the area made posssible by the 1,600-kilometer-long paved road cut through their territory.