Maxakali

The Maxakali, who called themselves Tikmun'un, were the people of the Jequitinhonha and Mucuri valleys in northeastern Minas Gerais. The outsider name Maxakali is of unknown origin and covers a league of related groups, including the Pataxo and Malali, who spoke closely related tongues of the Maxakalian branch of the Macro-Ge family.

They lived in small villages of one extended family under a leader with political and ritual functions. The groups bore ritual animal names such as parrot, armadillo and caiman.

From 1808 colonial invasion of their lands sharpened long wars with the Botocudo, so the Maxakali groups settled together in defensive confederations and at times allied with settlers. In 1817 the explorer Auguste de Saint-Hilaire recorded the Malali explaining these shifting alliances between the Jequitinhonha and the Doce rivers.