The Ebytoso converted to Christianity, while the Tomáraho have lived in marginal areas in order to preserve their traditional world views and lifeways.

[6] During the 80's, the yshyr were displaced from their lands and relocated by the National Indigenous Institute of Paraguay (INDI) confining them to small riparian areas.

[5] Yshyr language was studied and described by the Jesuits in the eighteenth century, and includes the dialects tomáraho (or tomaraxa), ybytoso (or ebitoso) and orio.

[11] Several ysyr groups lived in the Gran Chaco in the nineteenth century, both inside the territory, and settled on the banks of the Paraguay River.

[3] The remaining tomáraho were living in debt slavery in the remote San Carlos logging camp—and were dying from disease, neglect, and starvation.

Whereas the ebytoso had abandoned their rituals as a result of pressure from evangelical missionaries belonging to the New Tribes Mission, the tomáraho still practiced the boys initiation ceremony and had retained a detailed knowledge of myth and shamanism.

Before we were brave and strong, but cohabitation with Paraguayans has tamed us” The Tomáraho worked in the logging camps of the tannin company Carlos Casado and barely survived, ill and malnourished.

[3] Their first contact with the ebytoso was in 1981, when Bruno Barrás and Guillermo Mallero, Ishir from Fuerte Olimpo, walked to San Carlos to carry out the first National Indigenous Census.

[13] These groups are now on the verge of disappearing due to the poverty resulting from the transformation of their habitat, degradation of natural resources, and the pressure out of the expansion of economic activity.

Young people move to the cities of Paraguay and Brazil, abandoning their beliefs and often denying their origin to avoid being victims of discrimination.

When Nemur felt the human drawing up on him, they were already in the place called Karcha Balut he scooped up a snail from the soil or pulled it from his body's thick plumage (depending on the versions) and with an extravagant gesture produced a raging river that sprouted out of its shell.