The area now comprising Nova Xavantina was originally inhabited by the
Xavante, a
Jê-speaking people who once occupied a large territory in eastern Mato Grosso. In 1660, the
bandeirante Bartolomeu Bueno da Silva arrived in the area, capturing and enslaving much of the indigenous Xavante population. The modern municipality can be traced to the 1944 Roncador-Xingu Expedition, part of the larger
March to the West policy enacted by
Getúlio Vargas during the
Estado Novo period. Until this point, much of Brazil's interior was sparsely populated. In 1944, the expedition arrived at the
Rio das Mortes, building a settlement on the south bank which they named Vila da Xavantina and a settlement on the north bank called Nova Brasília, which were both later incorporated as a district of the
Barra do Garças municipality. Beginning in the 1970s, the region underwent significant population growth, emerging as a major center for agricultural production in Mato Grosso. Agricultural colonization projects brought immigrants to Mato Grosso from other regions of Brazil, primarily the
south. In 1971, a bridge across the
Rio das Mortes was opened, forming a crucial connection between the much larger city of
Barra do Garças to the south and less-developed areas north of the
Rio das Mortes, and connecting the settlements of Nova Brasília and Vila da Xavantina. == Geography ==