Kianumaka-Manã is a goddess of freedom and has a free spirit. A warrior who carries with her the strength of the jaguars, she also blesses the battles of the Brazilian Indians. She is also called "Deusa Onça", "Onça Cabocla" and "Mulher Onça" (Portuguese for "Jaguar Goddess", "Indigenous Jaguar" and "Jaguar Woman", respectively). This legend, which is part of the folklore shared between indigenous ethnic groups in the north of Minas Gerais (mainly the Xakriabá people) and ranchers who own cattle breeding. Two versions of the myth of the Kianumaka-Manã were collected by the anthropologist Romeu Sabará in 1976. The first version was heard by the chief Manoel Gomes de Oliveira Rodrigues and the other transmitted by the former Funai (Fundação Nacional do Índio, which translates to National Foundation Of Indigenous Peoples) delegate, João Geraldo Itatuitim Ruas, who for his part he had once collected it from an informant named Pino.
Tales[]
First version[]
"The mother and daughter were walking. The mother said: 'I'm hungry and I want to eat meat.' The daughter replied: 'I go there. I'm going to kill a cow. When I come running back with my mouth open, put this branch in my mouth.' The girl disappeared and soon after a jaguar jumped on top of a heifer and killed her. She ran back with her mouth open to the woman. The woman was afraid and ran. The jaguar was the girl and she never became a girl again. She hid during the day, and at night she went out and went to the farmers' corrals and killed the cow. The farmers one day handed over the branding iron for their cattle and the Onça Cabocla no longer ate their cattle."
Second version[]
"Once upon a time there was an indigenous girl named Yndaiá who felt sad to see her relatives persecuted by so many people who invaded her lands. She asked her companions to summon the spirit so that she would be enchanted. During the night, transformed into a jaguar, she hunted the animals belonging to the farmers. She killed, but wanted the meat to be distributed among the indigenous people. At dawn, she came running and asked her mother to put the branch in her mouth so that it would return to human form. On one of these days, her mother did not find the necessary branch. The girl's disenchantment was never done again. Farmers began to chase her even in caravans to kill her. She took refuge in one of the caves, in the one where there is the throne where the chiefs sat. There the indigenous people performed the dances at midnight and she was disenchanted and transformed into the beautiful indigenous girl Yndaiá, with the singing and drumming. The indigenous people ate pieces of meat and praised when they saw the jaguar at their side."
The myth is clearly associated with aspects of the history of the contact between the Xakriabá people and the cattle raisers who occupied their territory.