Pau de Lenha Farm 1854: Kaingang actions in defense of their territories in Nerinhé - Campos das Laranjeiras

Abstract

In the mid-19th century, the Nerinhé, Kaingang territories west of Guarapuava, saw an upheaval of its indigenous peoples in response to the farms being implemented in their fields, the military expeditions that ravaged their forests, rivers, and sacred places. Guarapuava landowners dared to invade the Nerinhé, even at the risk of their lives, as happened to Lieutenant Domingos Machado and his family. The imperial government employed resources and military forces to open a road from Guarapuava to the Paraná River and implement its indigenous policy to control the insurgent Kaingang groups by founding Indigenous Colonies. Archaeological data reveal the temporal and spatial depth of the Kaingang occupation in Guarapuava and the analyzed documentation shows the Kaingang’s actions in defending their territories and ways of life. Their current permanence in the Rio das Cobras and Koho Mu-Boa Vista Indigenous Lands is proof of the Kaingang protagonism in maintaining portions of its former Nerinhé.

Keywords:
indigenous ethnohistory; Kaingang indians; social and cultural affairs; borders and populations