During the colonial period around 1960, the massacre occurred during the Confederação dos Cariris, also known as the war of the barbarians, was a movement of resistance of Brazilian Indians of the Cariri and Tarairiú nations to the Portuguese domination that occurred in the states of RN, PB and CE. Although the conflict was responsible for several exterminations and displacements of some groups for slave labor in the cane fields or village missions. The period of the Pombaline Directory (1755) and the Land Law (1850) meant that indigenous territories were taken over by the advance of cattle ranches and the structuring of villages. The speeches of ethnic disappearance by local intellectuals have always maintained this invisibility. In addition, there were migrations to other areas that mixed with other local settlements, often denying their identity to avoid persecution and fleeing the colonizing policy of the time. Persecution, prejudice and social inferiority from the point of view of modern, industrial and European society for many have made cultures invisible.

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The articulations of the indigenous peoples of RN had an important beginning with an audience in 2005 involving three communities: Catu dos Eleóterios, Mendonça do Amarelão and Caboclos de Assu. Among other meetings, the recognition of the existence of Indians gained strength on the part of its leaders. UFRN, the Câmara Cascudo Museum, the José Augusto Foundation and FUNAI in João Pessoa / PB had an important collaboration in the dialogue with public institutions. As the meetings for the manifestation of peoples' demands took place, other groups joined the articulations: Potiguara Sagi / Trabanda, Tapuia Paiacu, Tapuia Tarairiú and Potiguara do Serrote de São Bento.

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There are currently 12 indigenous communities in the State of Rio Grande do Norte, comprising four ethnic groups:

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CABOCLES:

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The Caboclos indigenous community, located in Assú, was one of the first to claim their ethnic rights together with the Mendonça do Amarelão and the Potiguara do Catu in a public hearing at the Legislative Assembly of Rio Grande do Norte, in 2005. Formed by 40 families and 96 people, the Caboclos inhabit a dry territory in the potiguar hinterland living on the banks of the Paraú River, being sharecroppers in the lands where they live and which belong to farmers in the region. The memory of Tapuia ancestors is recurrent in indigenous communities, including the Caboclos, in Assu, however they prefer the term caboclo to demarcate their ethnic border.

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POTIGUARA

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Potiguara do Catu

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The Catu indigenous community, of the Potiguara ethnicity, is located in two municipalities, Canguaretama and Goianinha and, according to Cacique Luiz Catu's report on the origin of the village, came from the old village of Igramació, in the 18th century, going up between Sibaúma and Barra do Cunhaú, where the river flows, until the springs, in the middle of closed forest.

There are currently 142 families, 726 self-declared indigenous people and, for the most part, agriculture is the predominant economic activity. Growing beans, corn, manioc and especially sweet potatoes, the Potiguara do Catu people use the fertile soil of the valley to produce food for consumption and to sell at fairs and other businesses in the region. The hunting and fishing that once had a central place, became second place due to the intense deforestation caused by sugar cane fields that dispute the indigenous lands since the beginning of colonization. The collection of fruits such as mangaba is also being affected by socio-environmental conflicts caused by enterprises such as plants and monoculture.

As well as the Festival of the Chestnut of Amarelão and the Festival of the Corn of Sagi-Trabanda, the Potiguara of the Catu hold annually, on the day of all saints, the first of November, the Festival of the Potato. An event that demonstrates the articulation and indigenous strength to relate to institutions, groups and diverse situations, such as the need to transform the habits of hunter-gatherers for farmers due to the environmental destruction perpetrated by the sugarcane monoculture that dates back to the beginnings of interethnic relations between Europeans and Indians. This statement can be seen at the 2018 Potato Party, when Chief Luiz and local Canine tourist guide stated that with each passing day the difficulty is growing to collect mangaba other native fruits, due to agribusiness and local deforestation.

Past and contemporary habits are addressed in the indigenous school education of the Potiguara do Catu, which has the only indigenous school officially recognized in RN by MEC (Ministry of Education). This recognition lasted an eight-year process, according to the chief's report. The Tupinambá or Old Tupi language is studied with children at the João Lino Silva Municipal Indigenous School as a sociolinguistic effort to strengthen the Potiguara do Catu identity. Catu means good, pleasant, canguaretama means 'the region of bones, cemetery' and, according to Cacique Luiz, this name refers to indigenous struggle and resistance. The group's cosmogony appears in the studies and practice of Toré with the students of the indigenous school. Oral history is also a fundamental content of the differentiated education applied in Catu. The full moon ritual is practiced monthly, where they gather in the woods or at the home of some indigenous Catu to exchange experiences, dance and sing in Toré. In addition, the body paintings of the Catu indigenous community also represent the group's ethnic reaffirmation. The plants commonly used in the preparation of paints are jenipapu and annatto. The darker colors are used in moments of battle or protest, while the light and soft colors symbolize joy. The main animals symbolized in the paintings are fish, tortoise and snake.

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Potiguara of Sagi / Trabanda

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The Potiguara people of Sagi / Trabanda are located in the extreme south of the north coast of Rio Grande do Sul, in the municipality of Baía Formosa, with 159 families, and, on average, 443 indigenous people who subsist on artisanal fishing, fruit collection and bean farming, potato, cassava and corn and tourist activities. Every year, the community holds the Corn Festival, in June, the age of the ancient collection of this cereal grown in the Americas. This event has the participation of students from the region, indigenous people from other villages in Rio Grande do Norte and their relatives Potiguara da Paraíba, of whom they are divided only by the geopolitical frontier between the two states. The Potiguara do Sagi / Trabanda maintain kinship relations with the Potiguara of Paraíba, notably the residents of the villages located in the municipalities of Baía da Traição, Marcação and Rio Tinto, from where several families migrated at the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century .

The resistance of this indigenous group, as of so many communities in the Northeast of Brazil, is not only connected with the search for the recognition of their differentiated identity, but with their own survival and the realization of ethnic rights, since they are threatened by several business fronts . Since 2007, the Potiguara of the Bahia-Formosan coast have struggled to remain in their traditionally occupied territory, which is disputed by companies that see great potential in the region for the development of tourist activity and by sugar and alcohol plants.

The Potiguara do Sagi / Trabanda live surrounded by reeds that, in addition to contaminating the soil and water with pesticides, deforest, set fire and cause socio-environmental conflicts, harming the community's well-being, as well as the destruction of their plantations and threats to the population's life.

The territorial demarcation process of the communities of Rio Grande do Norte was initiated in 2015, in Sagi / Trabanda, with the consent of the indigenous movement, due to the constant threats that these Potiguara people have been suffering over time.

“Potiguara is a warrior, Potiguara is going to fight! A warrior on land, she fights on the sea, Potiguara is going to fight ”. Fragment of a song, point of the Toré Potiguara sung in Aldeia Sagi. And it is in strength, in struggle and in the ability to resist and recreate their strategies of living in community that Aldeia Sagi-Trabanda presents itself from the sea to the contemporary political world “Rei Caracará and Rei Jandui, Aldeia Trabanda is here, Aldeia Trabanda is here!

In addition, over the past decade, tourist activity has been driven by the members of the community due to the intense visitation, favoring, above all, the sale of food and handicrafts.

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We are a family owned and operated business.