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Centering on the autobiographical narratives of two Kawaiwete Brazilian indigenous men, this book project develops a picture of how state processes connected to visions of modernity and progress, such as “pacification,” the push toward “acculturation,” and, more recently, the encouragement to maintain a distinctive indigenous culture, were experienced, understood, and shaped by indigenous individuals. Insights from anthropological work on how social relationships are formed through bodily practices in Amazonia are used to explore the culturally specific ways these men describe interethnic networks and alliances being formed from the 1920s to the 1990s in the Brazilian frontier. Archival records are used to substantiate these narratives as well as cast them into relief. Through its focus on autobiographical narrative, this project covers the Kawaiwete's "first contact," with the Brazilian national society, induction into wage labor, and the creation of a celebrated indigenous park.