The Pataxó are an

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro) and the 5th-largest b ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

with a population of about 11,800 individuals. They once spoke the

Pataxó language Pataxó (Patashó), or Pataxó Hã-Ha-Hãe (Pataxó-Hãhaãi), is an extinct Maxakalían language of BrazilNikulin, Andrey. 2020. Proto-Macro-Jê: um estudo reconstrutivo'. Doctoral dissertation, University of Brasília. formerly spoken by the ...

, but now speak

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

and a revitalized version of the Pataxó language called Patxohã. The Pataxó's territory is part of a wider region traditionally inhabited by the group. The region was mainly converted into private farms by settlers who persecuted the Pataxó, and in 1961, they were expelled from the largest remaining forest and integrated into the dominant society, losing their indigenous identity and settling in cities. Others moved to coastal areas, forming new indigenous villages, including Coroa Vermelha, founded in 1972 and now home to approximately 6,000 people. In 1998, a group of Pataxó women created the Jaqueira Reserve, which comprises 827 hectares in the Environmental Protection Area of the Coroa Vermelha Indigenous Territory in South Bahia, where they operate a community-based cultural identity and

ecotourism Ecotourism is a form of tourism involving responsible travel (using sustainable transport) to natural areas, conserving the environment, and improving the well-being of the local people. Its purpose may be to educate the traveler, to provide fund ...

project, the Associação Pataxó de Ecoturismo, which employs indigenous families.

References

External links

Important Message from the Paje Pataxós AktxawãInformation from the Canadian Foreign Ministry Website
Indigenous peoples in Brazil Indigenous peoples of Eastern Brazil {{Brazil-ethno-group-stub