Xingu (people)
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The Xingu Indians are a group of 16 Indian tribes with four different languages, which live at the upper run of the Río Xingú in the Brazilian Mato Grosso.
In the centuries since the penetration of the Europeans into South America, they had fled from different regions to escape modernization and cultural disimilation, none the less settlers made up it up as far as the upper run of the Río Xingú. At the end of the 19th century there lived about 3,000 natives here at the Alto Xingu, whose current political status kept them protected against European intruders. Up to the middle of the 20 Century this number had been decimated by different foreign epidemic diseases such as flu, measles, smallpox and malaria. Now the number is roughly under 1.000.
Two Brazilians, Orlando Villas Bôas and his brother, claim that from 1946 to 1973 an administrative and commercial post contributed substantially to the fact that in the year 1961 at the Alto Xingu of the Parque Indígena do Xingu one furnished, in order to offer to the remaining ethnical minorities a shelter. This has to it contributed that the number of the Xingu here living in 32 settlements rose to today again over 3000 inhabitants, half of them younger than 15 years.
The Xingu living in this region has completely similar habits, habits and social systems despite different languages. They consist in detail of the following Indian peoples: the Aweti, Kalapalo, Kamaiurá, Kuikuro, Matipu, Mehinako, Nahukuá, Trumai, Waura and Yawalapiti.
