There is a long history of colonial exploitation and effective slavery of the indigenous people, and then of attempts to suppress their culture and "civilize" them.

Together the territories cover more than 11,500,000 hectares (28,000,000 acres) of the municipalities of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Santa Isabel do Rio Negro, Barcelos and Japurá.

The Portuguese reached the upper Rio Negro in the first half of the 18th century and its main tributaries such as the Uaupés, Içana and Xié.

The Carmelites set up settlements on the Upper Rio Negro near the present city of São Gabriel da Cachoeira.

It is estimated that in this period 20,000 Indigenous people were captured to work on the farms of Belém and São Luís, Maranhão.

North American evangelical missionaries of the New Tribes Mission led by Sophie Muller entered the region in the 1940s.

A gold rush invaded the Serra do Traíra and the upper Içana region in the 1980s causing rapid growth of São Gabriel, which doubled in size in less than ten years.

[1] The Federation of Indigenous Organizations of the Upper Rio Negro (FOIRN) was created in 1987, with headquarters in São Gabriel da Cachoeira.

[1] Homologation of the Alto Rio Negro reserves was the main contribution to indigenous people by the Fernando Henrique Cardoso government of 1995–2003.

Demarcation was undertaken between December 1995 and May 1996 coordinated by the Environment Ministry, with funding from a group of industrialized countries led by Germany.

The Arawak and Tariano live along the upper Rio Negro, Xié, Uaupés and Içana rivers and their tributaries.

The Hupdah, Yuhup, Dâw, and Nadêb are semi-nomadic hunters and gatherers who live in the inaccessible inter-fluvial areas.

Indigenous people who travelled to urban areas to collect social benefit such as Bolsa Família were becoming infected and carrying the disease back to their communities.

The health services in these communities were not able to quickly diagnose and treat the disease, causing rapid spread in areas that had formerly been unaffected.

[7] The lack of nutrients in the waters of the Rio Negro and its tributaries means that fish obtain most of their diet from organic matter from the margin of the river, including insects, fruits, flowers and seeds.

[1] In the late 1990s the National Department of Mineral Production (DNPM) reported 451 formal mining concessions in the territory covering 38% of the area.