People group profile · PG016860
The Guato of Brazil
The Guato of Brazil, numbering about 700 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are master canoeists of Brazil's Pantanal with a 5,000-year-old tradition of building earthwork mounds for homes and burials, decimated by disease after 18th-century gold prospectors arrived, declared extinct in the 1950s before survivors were rediscovered.
They are an indigenous people in the South American Indigenous people cluster of the Latin American and Caribbean Peoples. Their primary religion is Animism, and they primarily speak Portuguese.

Fast facts
- Country
- Brazil
- Population
- 700
- Affinity group
- American Peoples
- People cluster
- South American Indigenous
- Primary language
- Portuguese (por)
- Primary religion
- Animism
- Strategic Progress Index ?
- Unengaged and Unreached
- Evangelical
- No Known Evangelicals
- GSEC ?
- Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
- Lostness priority ?
- Frontier Unreached People Group
- Region
- South America, Americas
- Location
- Mato Grosso do Sul: Paraguai river banks and up São Lourenço river, along Bolivian border
Where they live
Gospel status
The Guato are Unengaged and Unreached, which means fewer than 2% are evangelical Christians, and there has been no reported church planting activity in the past two years. In GSEC terms, this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years.
- Congregations exist No
- Church planting in the last two years No Churches Planted
Next steps for the Guato
- Pray that God would send workers to this people group
- Begin sowing the gospel and seek out people of peace
- Plant the first churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice
Primary religion
Animism · Ethnoreligion
80% adherents
Primary language
Portuguese · Indo-European family
100% speak Portuguese
Gospel resources in Portuguese
- Bible available
- JESUS Film available
- Radio programs available
- Gospel recordings available
- Audio resources available
- Bible stories available
Films
- JESUS (Portuguese, Brazil)
- JESUS (Portuguese, Portugal)
- Magdalena (Portuguese, Brazil)
- Magdalena (Portuguese, Portugal)
- The Savior (Portuguese, Brazil)
Bibles
- 2014 Bible League International · text
- Almeida Corrigida Fiel (ACF) · text
- Almeida Revista e Atualizada · audio
- Almeida Revista e Corrigida · audio
- João Ferreira de Almeida Atualizada · text
- Nova Traducao na Linguagem de Hoje · video, audio
- Tradução Interconfessional - a BÍBLIA para todos · audio, text
- Tradução de João Ferreira de Almeida · text
Find more at the JESUS Film Project, Bible.com and Faith Comes by Hearing.
Pray for the Guato
- Matthew 9:37–38. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest field.
- 2 Timothy 2:2. Pray for faithful local leaders who will teach others, so that the church multiplies.
- Ephesians 5:8. Pray that those walking in darkness will turn to the light and live as children of light.
- Romans 10:14–15. Ask God to send messengers, so that people can hear, believe and call on the name of the Lord.
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