Paiter Suruí

The Paiter — 'the true people, we ourselves' — known in Brazil as the Suruí of Rondônia, live in the Sete de Setembro Indigenous Land straddling the border of Rondônia and Mato Grosso. Their language belongs to the Mondé family of the Tupi trunk, shared with neighboring peoples such as the Cinta Larga and Zoró. Sustained contact came only in 1969, and the epidemics that followed killed the great majority of the population within a few years.

Paiter livelihood combines swidden farming of maize, manioc, and yams with hunting, fishing, and gathering; after expelling settlers from their land in the early 1980s they adopted coffee growing, which remains an important cash crop, alongside artisanal production of ceramics, basketry, and arrows.

The Paiter became internationally recognized for pairing tradition with technology. Under leaders such as Almir Narayamoga Suruí they mapped their territory with satellite imagery and partnered with Google Earth, and in 2013 launched one of the first Indigenous-led forest carbon projects, selling verified offsets to protect their forest. Illegal logging, mining pressure, and internal disputes over resource deals have tested these initiatives, and territorial defense remains the community's central political concern, coordinated through the Metareilá association.