Kaingang

Kaingang country in the Piquiri region belonged to the Indigenous highlands of southern Brazil. Historical sources used several names for its inhabitants, and those labels cannot always be equated neatly with present-day peoples. Nevertheless, the mission of Conceição dos Gualachos on the Piquiri is identified as one of the Guairá settlements that included ancestors of the Kaingang, alongside the more numerous Guarani mission populations.

Mission life did not bring all surrounding communities under Jesuit authority. Many remained independent in the forests and grasslands. Later colonial expeditions sought the pastures of the interior: Afonso Botelho organised eleven expeditions between 1768 and 1774, and one reached Koran-bang-rê, now Guarapuava, in 1770. Renewed military occupation in 1810 was directed at seizing land suitable for cattle. These campaigns belong to the broader Paraná setting rather than proving an identical sequence at every Piquiri settlement. They show how pastoral expansion and military conquest placed growing pressure on an inhabited Indigenous landscape.