The Kaingang people are an

Indigenous Brazilian Indigenous peoples in Brazil or Native Brazilians () are the peoples who lived in Brazil before European contact around 1500 and their descendants. Indigenous peoples once comprised an estimated 2,000 district tribes and nations inhabiting what ...

ethnic group An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...

spread out over the three southern

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

ian states of

Paraná Paraná, Paranã or Parana may refer to: Geology * Paraná Basin, a sedimentary basin in South America Places In Argentina *Paraná, Entre Ríos, a city * Paraná Department, a part of Entre Ríos Province In Brazil *Paraná (state), a state ...

, Santa Catarina and

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...

and the southeastern state of

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

. Their population was around 51,000 in 2022.

Names

Kaingang is spelled caingangue in Portuguese, and kanhgág in the

Kaingang language The Kaingang language (also spelled Kaingáng) is a Southern Jê languages, Southern Jê language spoken by the Kaingang people of southern Brazil. The Kaingang nation has about 30,000 people, and about 60–65% speak the language. Most also spea ...

. It is also sometimes rendered as Aaingang or Caingang. The Kaingang have sometimes been grouped with the Aweikoma (

Xokleng The Xokleng or Aweikoma (sometimes called '' botocudos'') are a Native American tribe of Brazil; their territory is located mainly in the state of Santa Catarina. They were one of the original inhabitants of Misiones Province Misiones (, ...

), although they are now considered separate groups.

Culture and language

The Kaingang people were the original first inhabitants of the province of Misiones in Argentina. Their language and culture is quite distinct from the neighboring

Guaraní Guarani, Guaraní or Guarany may refer to Ethnography * Guaraní people, an indigenous people from South America's interior (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia) * Guarani language, or Paraguayan Guarani, an official language of Paraguay * G ...

. It has been stated that the Kaingang rarely live long in one place causing them to move a lot, but some sources, such as Juracilda Veiga and ethnographic registers (José Francisco Tomás do Nascimento 1886, Telêmaco Borba 1908 etc.), indicate that Kaingang groups have a crucial relation with the land where they were born and their ancestors were buried. The

is a member of the Jê family.

Copel agreement

In November 2006

's state-owned power company,

Copel Companhia Paranaense de Energia (COPEL) is a Brazilian electric utility company, the largest company of the State of Paraná, founded on October 26, 1954 with ownership control held by the State of Paraná. The Company went public in April 1994 ...

, agreed to compensate the group 6.5 million dollars for operating a

small hydro Small hydro is the generation of hydroelectric power on a smaller scale as compared to traditional large-scale hydro. Exact definitions vary by country, but small hydro power (SHP) projects are typically less than 50 megawatts (MW) and can be furt ...

plant in the Apucaraninha Reservation. The company finally gave in to a settlement after the natives carried two barrels full of fuel into the plant's machine room and threatened to destroy the plant. This is part of a larger trend of indigenous groups challenging energy projects according to

Platts S&P Global Commodity Insights is a provider of energy and commodities information and a source of benchmark price assessments in the physical commodity markets. The business was started with the foundation in 1909 of the magazine ''National Pe ...

Names

Culture and language

Copel agreement

See also

Footnotes

Citations

References