Disputes and Land Tenure in the Colonial Alto Sertão of Paraíba

The Arrival of the Conquerors and the Process of Silencing the Presence and Resistance of the Tupi Indigenous People in the Region

Abstract

This paper seeks to present historiographical perceptions about pre-colonial and colonial indigenous settlement in the Alto Sertão Paraibano region, with recent discoveries at archaeological sites of the Tupi trunk – emphasizing the Boa Fé site registered in 2025. These findings have become supplementary sources for predominant historical questions about the occupation of indigenous peoples in the hinterlands of Paraíba, as it is still common in historiographical narratives that there was no Tupi presence in the territory of Cachoeira dos Índios. Traditionally, the space and writings point to the Tapuias and Cariris indigenous groups as the native peoples of the region, as opposed to the Tupis who occupied the coast of the current state. This allows us to analyze the hitherto little-questioned fact of the presence of the Tupi peoples in this historical environment, through recent archaeological findings. From this perspective, this work seeks to reflect on the new evidence of the indigenous presence of the Tupi peoples, highlighting how labor exploitation, genocide, and acculturation through catechization may have been responsible for silencing the presence of this indigenous group in these areas during the process of disputes over land ownership to consolidate colonization in the Alto Sertão Paraibano.