Zamuco

The Zamuco group joins the Ayoreo and the Ishir, or Chamacoco, peoples of the Gran Chaco who speak Zamucoan languages, a small family of the northeastern Chaco in Paraguay and Bolivia. The Ayoreo lived between the Paraguay, Pilcomayo, Parapeti and Grande rivers, nomadic hunter-gatherers across both countries. The Ishir lived in Paraguay, the Ebytoso along the Paraguay River and the Tomaraho in the forests.

The Jesuits made the first contact with the Ayoreo when they founded the San Ignacio Zamuco mission in the 1720s to convert them to Catholicism. The mission was abandoned in the 1740s, and the Ayoreo were then left alone for a long time.