It is situated between the Morača river, Mala Rijeka and Crna Planina; it borders the tribes of Vasojevići to the north, Rovčani to the northwest, Kuči to the east and south, and Piperi to the west.
The dialects of Bratonožići and Kuči which differ to a certain degree from that of Piperi, largely because of the historic bilingualism that was present in the area as a result of direct contact with Albanian.
Its author writes that the Bratonožići, Piperi, Bjelopavlići and Kuči:" nulla di meno essegno quasi tutti del rito serviano, e di lingua Illrica ponno piu presto dirsi Schiavoni, ch' Albanesi " (since almost all of them use the Serbian rite and the Illyric (Slavic) language, soon they should be called Slavs, rather than Albanians)[4] The first indirect reference to the Bratonožići comes from the 1416-17 Venetian cadaster of Shkodër.
[citation needed] Two other communities that lived in the same area were the Albanian Catholic Bukumiri[7] and Bushati tribes and the Lutovci, who may have come from the Pirot region in the eastern Balkans or from Pilot in northern Albania.
Their origin is debated because no collective memory of their history has been retained except for a toponym which may be interpreted to refer to Pirot in eastern Serbia or Pilot in northern Albania.
The events of the reconversion of Bratonožići are regarded as an important step for the reinforcement of what was termed as Serbdom (Srbstvo) and Orthodoxy in Montenegro by 19th century Serbian historiography.
[11] Venetian public servant Mariano Bolizza's 1614 report that the villages of Kuči, Bratonožići and part of Plav were under the soldiers of Medun, the spahee, but the commander was not named; and the highlanders would pay the Ottoman officials a portion of their income.
[13] In 1658, the seven tribes of Kuči, Vasojevići, Bratonožići, Piperi, Klimenti, Hoti and Gruda allied themselves with the Republic of Venice, establishing the so-called "Seven-fold barjak" or "alaj-barjak", against the Ottomans.
[17] At the subsequent Battle of Novšiće, the battalions of Kuči, Vasojevići and Bratonožići fought the Albanian irregulars under the command of Ali Pasha of Gusinje, and were defeated.
The families of Bratonožići are: Avramović, Bajović, Baljević, Balević, Baličević, Barjaktarović, Baržić, Biljurić, Bismiljak, Bošković, Branković, Butrić, Caričić, Cmiljanić, Četković, Čađenović, Čubranović, Čolić, Ćeklić, Darmanović, Dmitrović, Dokić, Đelević, Đukić, Đurđević, Đurić, Femić, Garić, Gilić, Gogić, Grujić, Gudović, Ilić, Janković, Jelavić, Jovanović, Jovović, Kaluđerović, Keljanović, Keković, Korać, Krkelić, Lajkovič, Lainović, Lalović, Lašević, Liković, Lukić, Lutovac, Ljajinović, Ljajković, Ljaljović, Ljaković, Ljašović, Malević, Marnić, Macura, Mijailović, Miajlović, Milovanović, Mirković, Muratović, Novović, Nedovic, Obrenović, Pavićević, Pavličić, Pejušković, Perović, Praščević, Prelevčanin, Premović, Progonovići, Radojević, Radosević, Radunović, Raketić, Rakić, Ratković, Sekulović, Stanišić, Stanković, Strahinjić, Šćepančević, Šajinović, Šaković, Šoškić, Toljević, Todorović, Tomašević, Tošković, Trimojević, Ugričić, Veljić, Veljović, Velimirović, Vesković, Vidić, Vujović, Vujotić, Vukajlović, Vuković, Vukorepović, Vulić, Vučelić, Vučinić, Živković, Žmikić.