The Ikpeng language is the language of the Ikpeng people (also known as Txikāo) who live in the Xingu Indigenous National Park in Mato Grosso, Brazil. There are approximately 500 speakers (Rodgers, 2013). Ikpeng is a language with high transmission, meaning it is passed on from parent to child at a high rate, with all members speaking the language (Moore, 2006). The majority of members are also bilingual speakers of Portuguese (Pacheco, 2005). The Ikpeng language is part of the Carib (Karib) language family (Moore, 2006).
History
Early history
The Ikpeng were known to inhabit the same land as the Txipaya peoples, near the Iriri River, and they a strong alliance with that group in times of war. One oral history traces the Ikpeng ancestral territory as far as the Jari River (Rodgers, 2013). By 1850, the Ikpeng were known to inhabit an area of converging rivers thought to be the Teles Pires-Juruena river basin (Menget & Troncarelli, 2003). Before 1900, the Ikpeng were at war with several polities, and even encountered settlers of European descent (2003). War and the colonization of the Teles Pires-Juruena basin pushed the Ikpeng across the Formosa Mountain formation and into the Upper Xingu Basin (2003).
Contact and relocation
On October 19, 1964, Orlando and Cláudio Villas-Boas encountered Ikpeng villages as they were flying over the Ronuro River in Mato Grosso (Pacheco, 2005). They lived near the Ronuro and Jabotá rivers and, when they were found malnourished and exposed to disease, they accepted resources and later relocation to the Xingu National Park in 1967 (Menget & Troncarelli, 2003). The Ikpeng dispersed for a short time, with different family groups living in different parts of the park, but later regrouped in the early 1970s near the Leonardo Villas-Boas Indigenous Post (2003). By the 1980s, they had moved to the middle Xingu region, and currently administer the Pavuru Indigenous Post, as well as the Ronuro Vigilance Post, which is near their traditional land on the Jabotá river (2003). From this post, they help defend the Xingu Park from illegal loggers and fishermen (Campetela, 1997). The Ikpeng made an expedition in 2002 to the Jabotá River to collect medicinal plants and shells. They currently seek to regain this territory (Menget & Troncarelli, 2003).
Schools
In the 1990s, the Ikpeng began to elaborate an education system within their community (Campetela, 1997). In 1994, Ikpeng teachers developed a form of writing with the help of linguists (Menget & Troncarelli, 2003). This was done through the Instituto Socioambiental's Teacher Training program, which has allowed Ikpeng children to learn their own language alongside Portuguese in the Ikpeng School (2003). This school plays a central role in the project, and it is responsible for the creation of material and distribution of this material for Ikpeng communities within the Xingu Park (2003).
Classification
The Carib language family also referred to as Karib or Cariban, is a family with languages spoken in Colombia, Venezuela, the Mato Grosso region of Brazil and the three Guianas (Britannica, 2007). The Carib language family comprises approximately 50 languages and is most commonly separated into regional language groups, such as Carib Central, Eastern, Northern etc. (Biblioteca Digital Curt Nimuendajú). Carib languages were first encountered in the seventeenth and eighteenth century by Europeans, however, the full spatiality of the language family was not uncovered until the nineteenth century when Karl von den Steinen documented the existence of Carib languages in Central Brazil (Meira & Franchetto, 2005, p. 129). Although large, with a population of over twenty-two thousand speakers, Carib languages have faced drastic changes in its geography and prevalence in the region (Britannica, 2007). Precolonial contact Carib languages were found throughout the Greater Antilles, however, much of the indigenous population was wiped out and the remaining population does not speak their indigenous languages (Britannica, 2007).