Brazilian Indians - Survival International

Brazilian Indians - Survival International

Over five hundred years of exposure to disease, violence and dispossession wiped out the vast majority of this indigenous population. Today, there are around 896,000 Indians in Brazil in over 238 tribes, who live scattered across the country.

Yanomami boy, Brazil. © Victor Englebert/Survival

Between them they speak a huge number of languages; 110 of the tribal languages of Brazil have fewer than 400 speakers. Brazil’s tribes range in size from the Guarani and Yanomami, who number tens of thousands, to tribes such as the Akuntsu and Kanoê, who number only a few dozen.