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The Kaingang are an ethnic group of indigenous people who live in Brazil, states of Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, and São Paulo. There were more than 33,000 individuals in the group as of 2009.
The first contacts with the whites happened during the 18th century. Today these natives live scattered on 30 indigenous reservations, which cover a small part of their original territories. The reservations are contained within 4 different states.
The name Kaingang was introduced at the end of the 19th century by Telêmaco Borba. These indigenous people were once considered as a single group together with the Xokleng. Today they're considered separate ethnic groups who once formed a group with a single identity.
Their language belongs to the Jê family. Ursula Wiesemann, a linguist and missionary from the Summer Institute of Linguistics, has classified their language, dividing it in five dialects, each of them being spoken in a different state.
External links[edit]
- Kaingang on socioambiental.org