History

Natives of the Pantanal

The first residents in the region, the Indians, left a heritage which even today is manifest in the regional art and culture, in dances, music, the typical regional cooking and in other parts of folklore. The Indian tribes of the Guaicurú, Terena, Paiaguá and Xané settled places nearby rivers and at the feet of mountains, forming different tribal groups with different languages. All these had in common that they got their food principally by hunting and fishing. On horseback or in canoes, the Indians conquered the vastness of the Pantanal and left proof of their existence everywhere: they laid out paths, explored rivers and smaller streams and showed their routes to the white people, with whom some tribes had peaceful contact.

When the first white men advanced into the Pantanal (in the early 16th century) - they found different Indian tribes, each with its own cultural identity, but almost all of them speaking a single language, the "Guarani".  Being outstanding riders, the "Guaicurus" dominated the entire south of the Pantanal - from the Serra da Bodoquena all the way to Porto Murtinho. They got their horses in Paraguay and moved quickly and surprisingly through their territory, feared by all their neighbours. Over the course of a few generations, the "Guaná", the "Guachi" and the "Kadiweu" mixed with the Guiacurus - the latter of which played a major part in the "Paraguayan war", in which they fought at the side of the Brazilians.

Another tribe from the Pantanal of great importance are the Paiaguás, who were feared as "canoe Indians". They were called this because they repeatedly invaded their neighbours' territories in the Pantanal via countless canals and skirmished with them. From the Rio Paraguay they advanced to the Rio Miranda and the Rio Negro. Both the Paiaguás and the Guaicurus were warlike tribes, which defended their territory against intruders for three centuries. Due to their complete adaptation to the flood cycle and their excellence at fishing and swimming, the Paiaguás can be described as the most characteristic tribe of the Pantanal.

The Xanés and the Xaray, who were good canoeists as well, were conquered by the Paiaguás - they had a more peaceful disposition and were fewer in numbers. The only nomadic tribe, the Guatô, lived on the eastern side of the Rio Paraguay and moved around the entire area of the Paiaguá-Pantanal; during the rainy season they built simple huts. They were respected as excellent hunters, since they were more skilled with bows and arrows than anybody. However, being a small tribe, they were taken over by the warlike Paiaguá and Guiacurá, serving them as hunters from then on.

The Terena lived on both sides of the rivers Aquidauana and Miranda. They were a peaceful tribe and tolerated Spaniards and Portuguese crossing their territories. In the year 1580 they founded the settlement "Santiago de Xerez". Today their descendents live as fringe groups in the towns of Cachoeirinha and Bananal, in the districts of Miranda and Aquidauana. They can often be encountered by the sides of roads, selling their ceramics.

Certain features were common to all peoples in this area: their economy consisted of harvesting fruits of the wild, hunting, fishing and agriculture - although the latter was still at its rudimentary beginning. Private property was unknown and all work was done as a collective, including the distribution of goods. The boundaries between the individual tribal territories were not clearly defined, and every once in a while two communes would come into conflict with and attack each other; the winners would then enslave the losers.

The origin of the Pantanal Indians has always been associated with a certain animal by most tribes. This potential of nature, together with the power of the heavens, forged man together with nature. The Guiacurú, for instance, explained their existence with a typical pre-Colombian legend: the tribe's elders still tell the story of a falcon from whose eggs the Guiacurú hatched once upon a time. For this reason the tribe has never hunted falcons, an attitude that can be found in some variation among all primitive peoples.

The Paiaguá on the other hand believed that they were the descendents of a particular fish, the "pacú". And like all Indians of the Pantanal they thought of themselves as being the descendents of a divine spirit, which among other things had bestowed upon them the right to make other peoples their servants.

Natives in the Pantanal today

In the Pantanal, too, the native Brazilians have been living in an exemplary harmony with their environment for ages. As everywhere, they have been threatened, injured and decimated by the white people, and have been forced to retreat more and more from the greed and profit seeking of the white race's culture. Diseases have been brought to them via traffic routes, rivers and railways, and have wiped out many tribes completely. But these unspeakable sacrifices, the suffering and the injustice have made the survivors strong, resistant and above all educated: they have not only learned the white language; today many Indians study and some defend their people's rights in the government.

For instance, they spoke out vehemently against the plan of a "Hydrovia Paraguai Paraná" - a canal that is to be constructed between Cáceres (by the Rio Paraguay) and the Rio Paraná (in the deep south). Once again, this is to happen under the pretext of economic interests, but could cause irreparable damage to the Pantanal. The reason: since the riverbed of the Rio Paraguay is too low, an artificial canalisation of it is also planned. This would disrupt the natural flood cycle, which is of vital importance for nature. Indians from the region joined up with a great number of Brazilian environmentalists and on January 29th, 1996 worked out a manifesto which was published and discussed all over the Internet. As a result, the government promised to reexamine the whole project in regard to its implications for the sensitive environment. The official result is still pending.

The first people in the Pantanal

Archaeological studies have shown that the first humans settled the Pantanal more than 8,000 years ago. Findings prove that the manufacture of clay receptacles was still unknown to these first primitive tribes. On the other hand, they specialised in hunting, collecting wild fruits and fishing - they lived in a kind of symbiosis with the flooded areas in the region.

The first populations which penetrated into the Pantanal settled in areas that were less affected by the annual floods - particularly the slopes at the feet of the surrounding mountains (as in Corumbá-Ladario or the Serra do Amolar), the banks of rivers (as in Caracará and in São Lourenço) and lagoons (like the "black lagoon" in Corumbá), as well as on isolated hills (like the one in Caracará, near Poconé). These settlements were always started in the vicinity of permanent rivers. Therefore it seems logical that mussels were a part of people's diet from early on.

These facts are proved by archaeological findings both from the heartland and the coastal areas of the South American continent - for instance the well-known "sambaquis" from the south and south-east of Brazil. The different sites where artifacts were found prove that in the time before the colonisation of Brazil, a number of different cultures (from the Amazon region, the Andes and the Chaco) settled down in the Pantanal. The flooded part, which was occupied by the Xaray tribe, was named accordingly by the first Spaniards who got there: "Mar de Xarayés" - it was not until much later that this region was named "Pantanal". Besides the Xaray, the first Spanish expeditions (which went up the Rio Paraguay in 1514) also mention encounters with other native groups, such as the "Orejones", the "Guaren-Cocie", the "Guaxarapatos" and the "Xerebacane". At the start of the 17th century, things changed in the upper Rio Paraguay area: the Xaray and Orejone tribes were almost completely eradicated by the Spanish. The region was then settled by the Guató and the Boróros, who in turn fell victim to the Portuguese.

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