They are the Aweti, Kalapalo, Kamaiurá, Kayapó, Kuikuro, Matipu, Mehinako, Nahukuá, Suyá, Trumai, Wauja and the Yawalapiti peoples.

Xingu people represent fifteen tribes and all four of Brazil's indigenous language groups, but they share similar belief systems, rituals and ceremonies.

[2] In the centuries since the penetration of the Europeans into South America, the Xingu fled from different regions to avoid the spread of deadly disease and enslavement by the Portuguese.

By the end of the 19th century, about 3,000 natives lived at the Alto Xingu, where their current political status has kept them protected against foreign intruders.

By the mid-twentieth century this number had been reduced by foreign epidemic diseases such as flu, measles, smallpox and malaria to less than 1,000.

[2] The Brazilian Villas-Bôas brothers visited the area beginning in 1946, and pushed for the creation of the Parque Indígena do Xingu, eventually established in 1961.

Specifically, they consist of the following peoples: the Aweti, Kalapalo, Kamaiurá, Kayapó, Kuikuro, Matipu, Mehinako, Nahukuá, Suyá, Trumai, Wauja and Yawalapiti.

[5] The members of the Xingu community commemorated the victims of COVID-19 by putting four painted tree trunks at the center of the village.

[4] To commemorate Aritana’s death, the Xingu participated in a funeral ceremony called the Kuarup, where ritual dances and combat are performed to honor the cycle of life.

[4] Men honored the life of Aritana by holding a parade where they blew bamboo trumpets and by painting their bodies black and red.

[6] For generations, the Xingu and other tribes in the South American lowlands have been using the emergence of the Pleiades to predict the start of the rainy season, but now this method is not able to be used as consistently.

[6] In May 2019, Xingu women held a women’s conference with around 200 attendees on the Ilha Grande where they discussed issues concerning climate change, deforestation, concerns about President Jair Bolsonaro’s treatment of indigenous peoples, and the distribution between gender, occupations, and leadership.