The first Indigenous Park in Brazil was created in the river basin by the Brazilian government in the early 1960s. This park marks the first indigenous territory recognized by the Brazilian government and it was the world's largest indigenous preserve on the date of its creation. Currently, fourteen tribes live within
Xingu Indigenous Park, surviving on natural resources and extracting from the river most of what they need for food and water. The Brazilian government built the
Belo Monte Dam on the Lower Xingu, which began operations in 2019 and is the world's fifth-largest hydroelectric dam. Construction of this dam was under legal challenge by environment and indigenous groups, who assert the dam would have negative environmental and social impacts along with reducing the flow by up to 80% along a stretch known as the Volta Grande ("Big Bend"). The river flow in this stretch is highly complex and includes major sections of
rapids. More than 450 fish species have been documented in the Xingu River Basin and it is estimated that the total is around 600 fish species, including many
endemics. At least 193 fish species living in rapids are known from the lower Xingu, Many species are seriously threatened by the dam, which will significantly alter the flow in the Volta Grande rapids. In the Upper Xingu region was a highly self-organized
pre-Columbian anthropogenic landscape, including deposits of fertile agricultural
terra preta, black soil in
Portuguese, with a network of roads and polities each of which covered about 250 square kilometers. Near the source of Xingu River is
Culuene River, a tributary. ==In popular culture==