Re-Discovering the Guato People of Pantanal, Brazil

Written By: Gail Clifford | Published By: Weekend Notes| November 30, 2021

https://www.weekendnotes.com/re-discovering-the-guato-people-pantanal-brazil/

Have you ever had the opportunity to meet someone from a people declared extinct? That’s exactly what happened to me during my trip to the Pantanal in November.

The Pantanal, encompassing the world’s largest tropical wetland area, is located mostly within the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000, thousands of species thrive there, including jaguars, anaconda, toucans, the imperilled hyacinth macaw, giant river otters and animals you’ve likely never heard of, caiman and capybara.

In addition to the animal population, indigenous tribes inhabit the region. Brazil’s primary language is Portuguese. The indigenous tribes’ languages have been studied and quantified. One concern with the Guató’s extinct, now renewing tribe, is the loss of language. There were only two people identified in 2014 who spoke the Guató language fluently, including Vicente. Linguistically, it stands alone within the Macro-Ge Trunk, perhaps misidentified but at least recognized.

The Guató Indians, considered the great canoeists of the Pantanal, were first identified in Spanish Conquistador writings in the early 1500s. Decimated by smallpox and chickenpox during the following century, and then pushed from their native lands by ranchers in the 1800s, they migrated to other parts of the Pantanal or nearby towns. It’s a tribe that doesn’t generally interact with outsiders and nothing was heard from them. They were declared extinct by Brazil’s government in the 1950s.

When a tribe is declared extinct in Brazil, they no longer have the rights afforded indigenous people, including social and ethnic assistance. But the people I met want to change that. In the Guató Indian’s case, the indigenous rights included being allowed to hunt and fish on their native lands.

In 1976, some nuns noted an unusual language spoken at a coffee shop on the edges of Corumbá and the road from extinction began. Immediately thereafter, the struggle began in South West Pantanal to recover lands, culture and language. It wasn’t until 1999 that a parallel campaign was initiated in the Northern Pantanal, where I visited.

The army wouldn’t want the Guató to recover their rights, as they occupied Insua Island, deep in the Pantanal, part of the Guató’s ancient lands. But the Guató Indians were willing to compromise, and a treaty was negotiated. They granted the use of half of the island to the military.