The Ticuna (also Magüta, Tucuna, Tikuna, or Tukuna[2]) are an indigenous people of Brazil (36,000), Colombia (6,000), and Peru (7,000).

[1] The Ticuna were originally a tribe that lived far away from the rivers and whose expansion was kept in check by neighboring people.

Their historical lack of access to waterways and their practice of endogamy has led to the Ticuna being culturally and genetically distinct from other Amazonian tribes.

When the Europeans initiated warfare with the neighboring tribes, their land, which consisted of islands and coastal areas, was available to the Ticuna.

[3] Ticuna as a Brazilian tribe has faced violence from loggers, fishermen, and rubber-tappers entering their lands around the Solimões River.

Due to the influence of Catholic missionaries, cross-cousin marriages and polygyny, which were acceptable and common in the past, are no longer viewed as permissible practices.

Today, most Ticuna people dress in western clothing and only wear their traditional garments made out of tree bark and practice their ceremonies on special occasions or for tourists.

So effective has the OGPTB program been that it is now being expanded and copied to better serve the educational needs of other indigenous people in Brazil and Colombia.