The Ikpeng are also called Txicão,[1] Txikão,[2] Txikân,[2] Chicao,[2] Tunuli,[2] Tonore,[2] Chicão,[1] or Tchicão[1] people.

The Ikpeng were known to inhabit the same land as the Txipaya peoples, near the Iriri River, and they had a strong alliance with that group in times of war.

According to a story told to Scott Wallace by Sydney Possuelo, a few days before October 19, 1964 (the date of first contact), Orlando and Cláudio Villas-Boas had heard from native informants the Ikpeng were suffering from disease after a brutal enemy attack and that the Ikpeng shamans had failed to cure this disease.

[3] A few days after the alleged airdrop, on October 19, 1964, Orlando and Cláudio Villas-Boas encountered Ikpeng villages as they were flying over the Ronuro River in Mato Grosso (Pacheco, 2005).

They lived near the Ronuro and Jabotá rivers and, when they were found malnourished and exposed to disease, they accepted resources and later relocation to the Xingu National Park in 1967 (Menget & Troncarelli, 2003).

The Ikpeng dispersed for a short time, with different family groups living in different parts of the park, but later regrouped in the early 1970s near the Leonardo Villas-Boas Indigenous Post (2003).