Sociolinguistically, it is two languages, each spoken by the Guajajara and the Tembé people, though these are mutually intelligible.
Tenetehára speakers were first contacted in 1615 by a French expedition in the margins of the Pindaré river.
After the Jesuits were expelled from Brazil, the various Tenetehára groups went back to a life with very limited contact with the settler society.
At the end of the 19th century the members of the community started to be employed as collectors of natural resources.
After some abuse by white settlers in their vicinity, in 1901 the Guajajara group revolted against a nearby Capuchin missions and expelled them from their land.