Fulni-o

The Fulni-ô are an ethnic group of people who live in Brazil, state of Pernambuco. They speak a language which belongs to the Ia-tê group. According to Funasa, there were 3659 individuals in the group during 2006. The city of Águas Belas is entirely inside the Fulni-ô reservation.

These Indians have also been called Carnijós, Carijós, or Cajaú (according to Hohenthal, 1960). Some experts think the Fulni-ô are the descendants of the Karirí Indians, who used to live in the north-east of Brazil. Boudin (1949) thinks this is a confusing and unreliable fact because both groups inhabited the same region, living near the São Francisco River, but still remained separate.

The Fulni-ô live in Águas Belas, Pernambuco, inside the Sertão region, a semi-arid desert. The territory of their reservation covers 11,506 hectares.

They live in two villages, one of which is near the town. The Fundação Nacional do Índio (FUNAI) is the organization which takes care of Indian-related affairs and has its headquarters in there. The other village has a spiritual importance and becomes heavily populated in September and October, when a sacred ritual called Ouricuri is celebrated.

External links

• Fulni-o on socioambiental.org