As a result of conflict with colonial powers, the Terena people gradually migrated to their Brazilian territory where they remain today.

In 1864 the Paraguayan War started, pitting Paraguay against the Triple Alliance, composed of the Brazilian Empire, Uruguay, and Argentina.

The Terena people are noted to have fought jointly with Brazilian military forces during the late 1860's, and sustained substantial losses and attacks on their territories from adversarial troops.

[6] Under the establishment of the Serviço de Proteção aos Índios (SPI) in 1910, the state of Mato Grosso requested official Terena Indigenous reserves.

[8] In 1988, an amendment was made to the Constitution of Brazil, featuring a new declaration that, within 5 years of the provision's creation, traditional ancestral lands would be returned to groups of Brazilian indigenous populations.

The Buriti Farm incident has become a representation of growing land rights tensions within the Brazilian Indigenous population, specifically pertaining to the Terena peoples.

On May 15th, 2013, a group of hundreds of Terena peoples moved to re-occupy a parcel of land, now owned by a local politician and rancher, that they believe is part of their Indigenous ancestral territory.

The incident drew national attention as he was thought to have been shot by pistoleiros, who are gunmen or assassins hired discretely by farm owners in attempts to rid the farmland of Indigenous peoples.

Demographically speaking, a large number of the causes of death prior to the mid 20th century were infectious diseases, namely tuberculosis.

The Terena also have traditional crafting activities, namely pottery and spinning cotton to form items like belts, hammocks, etc.

[23] This means that it is a societal standard among the Terena that young married couples go to live in the husband's father's home post-marriage.

[24] Scholars describe the Awarakan family as a language "matrix" indigenous to South American regions spanning the Terena territory within Brazil.