The Xerente of Brazil

The Xerente of Brazil, numbering approximately 3,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Central Je people of Tocantins who call themselves Akwe, forming with the Xavante the central branch of Brazil's Je societies, their 250 years of outsider contact since the 19th century staying largely peaceful without eroding native-language fluency. They mostly adhere to Folk Catholicism and Xerénte is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Xerente

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Latin American and Caribbean Peoples
Country: Brazil
People Cluster: South American Indigenous
Primary Language(s): Xerénte (xer)
Primary Religion(s): Folk Catholicism
Population: 3,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 2% or Greater but Less than 5% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG017192
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Xerente of Brazil

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Folk Catholicism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

78%
%
Folk Catholicism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Xerénte
Language Family: Nuclear-Macro-Je

100%
%
Xerénte Speakers

Media Resources in Xerénte:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Bible Resources in Xerénte:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
2006 Edition✓✓

1 entry

Or check out the Xerénte bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Xerente are No Longer Unreached, which means there are more than 2% evangelical Christian populations and there are churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice. There is still more to be done among them.

Next steps for the Xerente:
Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Xerente of Brazil

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
readMatthew 5:44-45

Pray for those who don't know Jesus to encounter believers who are kind and compassionate and that their imitation of Christ will serve as a testimony that attracts lost people to Jesus.

Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.
readMatthew 13:8-9

Pray that they will have open hearts and minds to the Word of God, and that it will take root in their lives and bear fruit for His glory.

And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.
readActs 16:15

Pray that God will bring entire families and households to faith in Him and raise up servant-leaders from among them.

Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.”
readPsalm 96:10

Pray for God to put in the hearts of believers to go to the lost and testify about the Lord who reigns.

Xerente Across Countries (ROP3 - 110891) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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