Baré

The Baré are the most numerous Indigenous people of the upper Rio Negro, living along the great black-water river and its tributary the Xié in northwestern Amazonas state, with communities in Venezuela along the Casiquiare canal. Centuries at the center of colonial trade routes reshaped their world profoundly: their ancestral Arawakan language has nearly disappeared, replaced by Nheengatu, the Amazonian lingua franca spread by Carmelite missions, which the Baré made their own.

Baré livelihood follows the rhythms of the black-water rivers: manioc cultivation on poor sandy soils, fishing, hunting, and gathering, with the extraction of piassava palm fiber long serving as the main source of cash income. Many Baré also live in and around the town of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, where they are active in urban Indigenous politics.

After generations in which many families concealed Indigenous identity under the pressures of the rubber economy and discrimination, the Baré have reasserted themselves publicly since the 1980s. Their communities share in the mosaic of demarcated Indigenous territories of the upper Rio Negro and participate in FOIRN, the powerful regional federation of Rio Negro Indigenous organizations.