Wajãpi

The Wajãpi, also recorded as Oiampi or Oyampi, are a Tupi-Guarani people of the lower Amazon and the Guiana frontier. They lived by slash-and-burn fields of cassava, sweet potato, yam and banana, supplemented by hunting and fishing.

Portuguese records of 1690 describe their migration from the lower Xingu to the Jari River and north into the forests between the Amazon and the Oyapock.

They fought French colonists, and a Jesuit mission founded on the Oyapock in 1738 brought disease and depopulation. When the Jesuits withdrew in 1763 the survivors scattered into the interior and deliberately isolated themselves; they numbered about six thousand in 1770. Only after 1820 did some northern groups renew contact with French officials and Maroon communities, while most villages kept their distance. They also exchanged cotton thread, hunting dogs and feather crowns for metal tools through the Wayana trade network.