In Brazil, the Yeꞌkuana are believed to have settled on the lands they now occupy more than a century ago, coming from the larger population centres in Venezuela.
Traditional mythology and oral history, however, tells that the lands around the
Auari and
Uraricoera rivers have long been travelled by the Yeꞌkuana. During the 18th century, there was a lot of
missionary activity in Yeꞌkuana territory, during which they were forced into constructing forts for the
Spanish, and coerced into converting to
Catholicism. A rebellion was organised against the Spanish in 1776. The 20th century brought a new wave of exploitation in the form of the colonists looking to capitalise on the discovery of rubber. Whole villages were forced into labour, driven in
chain gangs to the
rubber camps. Later, another wave of missionaries arrived around the early 1960s. The Brazilian Yeꞌkuana decided not to live in the missions established on that side of the border, because the missionaries’ attention in Brazil was focused on the
Sanumá and not on them. They were also more reluctant to convert, having seen their Venezuelan cousins convert and become (from the Brazilian Yeꞌkuana perspective) culturally weaker as a result, giving up key elements of their traditional ways of life. On the Venezuelan side of the border, this wave of missionaries brought the establishment of health services,
schools, and access to local markets, also creating several relatively large communities centred around the missions. In 1980, a married Canadian missionary couple came to live among the Yeꞌkuana for a while, but they did not like their way of life, and there were disagreements between them and the Yeꞌkuana, and they left. After this, the Brazilian Yeꞌkuana decided that they did not want religion, but they did want a school, seeing the benefits that that infrastructure had provided
indigenous communities in Venezuela. They got one, after negotiating with the leader of the
Evangelical Mission of Amazônas. So began a process of becoming
sedentary, wherein the Yeꞌkuana all moved closer together, and established semi-regular schedules (including that certain times of day for children were set aside for school). This establishment of solid permanent contact also led to more far-reaching mobilisation and contact with other indigenous communities and the state of Roraima. The Yeꞌkuana became known as skilled
canoe makers and
manioc scrapers, all while remaining fairly removed from the intense river traffic and influx of outsiders that had harmed many other indigenous communities. ==Notes==