Topic summary
Xavante people
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Xavante.
History
They were enslaved in the 18th century, after which they have tried to avoid contact. A temporary coexistence with westernized society in the 19th century in the state of Goiás, was followed by withdrawal to Mato Grosso (between 1830 and 1860). They were "re-discovered" during the 1930s. From 1946 to 1957, they were brought under Getúlio Vargas' National Integration Program, but still experienced massacres and disease. Due to this history, they have a distrust of non-Xavante people. Today they are still wary of any approach of non-Xavante, called "waradzu".