Tenetehara

The Tenetehara are a Tupi-Guarani people of the Maranhão interior, made up of two main branches, the Guajajara and the Tembé; the Guajajara are their best-known branch. Their collective self-name means the true human beings, and they call their language ze'egete, the good speech.

Their earliest known homeland was the middle Pindaré River, and the first recorded European contact came in 1615, when French Jesuits reached the Pindaré valley. During the 1700s Tenetehara groups spread into the Grajaú and Mearim river basins, living in strongly organized villages that combined hunting with farming.

Their early contact history alternated between trading and allying with the Portuguese and refusing or revolting against forced settlement, which let them keep their language and village autonomy far longer than most coastal peoples.