The Matsés have long guarded their lands from other indigenous tribes and struggle with encroachment from illegal logging practices and poaching.

In the last thirty years, they have become a largely settled people living mostly in permanent forest settlements.

Bows and arrows are the main weapons of the Matsés culture, although they are currently rarely used in personal conflict.

The Matsés made their first permanent contact with the outside world in 1969 when they accepted SIL missionaries into their communities.

Dan James Pantone and Bjorn Svensson described the Matsés first peaceful contact with the outside world in an article in Native Planet.

[2] In their article, James and Svensson described the 1969 encounter between the Matsés with SIL linguists Harriet Fields and Hattie Kneeland.

That same year, 1969, photojournalist Loren McIntyre made contact with the Matsés as described in Petru Popescu's book Amazon Beaming.

Lack of political organization has made it difficult for the Matsés people to obtain medical assistance from the outside world.

[8] To make matters more complex for the Matsés people, in September 2013 the Matsés mayor (Andres Rodriquez Lopez) of the Yaquerana District was publicly accused of corruption by the municipal regulators who blocked his ability to use the municipal checking account.

[10] Acaté Amazon Conservation is a non-profit that was founded in 2013, but existed since 2006 as a loose organization of its founders, Christopher Herndon, MD, and William Park.