Tabajara

The Tabajara are a Tupi-Guarani people of northeastern Brazil and one of the region's largest indigenous nations. Their name comes from the old Tupi tobaîara, meaning enemies, and was probably given by rivals. Their territory ran from Ilha de Itamaracá to the Pajeú valley, before migrations carried them into Paraíba and later the Serra da Ibiapaba.

In the Potiguara War of 1574 to 1599 they switched sides more than once before making peace and allying with the Portuguese in the conquest of Paraíba. In the early seventeenth century the chiefs Irapuã and Juripariguaçu led resistance in Ibiapaba against Portuguese incursions into Ceará.

When the Jesuit Antônio Vieira arrived in 1660, priests Pedro Pedrosa and Antônio Ribeiro were already catechizing Tabajara villagers across twenty settlements. Enslavement, epidemics and intermarriage gradually fragmented the nation into small family groups across the sertão.