This thesis aimed to analyze the role played by the Tupi leaders, belonging to the Tabajara and Potiguara peoples, in the process of insertion of indigenous peoples in colonial society from the conquest and colonization of the Royal Captaincy of Paraíba, and other captaincies of northern Brazil, throughout the sixteenth – eighteenth centuries. During the first contacts between indigenous and colonizers, the later had the need to insert themselves into the logic of the wars fought between the Tupi societies to contract aliances and conquer the territory. The Europeans were inserted into the indigenous “universe” from the relations of marriages established with the daughters of the Tupi chiefs. The matrimonial agreements between indigenous and colonizers were fundamental for the settlement of the captaincies of Pernambuco and Itamaracá in the first half of the sixteenth century. Troughout this century, many indigenous allies were enslaved, and this conjucture caused indigenous chiefs to re-establish peace agreements with the colonizers trought the provision of services, notifiedly of wars, to not only avoid the enslavement of their people, but also for the preservation of collective lands from the insertion of such individuals in the missionary villages. Many indigenous peoples were protagonists in the wars that resulted in the foundation of the captaincy of Paraíba and other captaincies of northern Brazil, as well as in the conquest of the backlands, throughout the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. The provision of services resulted in numerous rewards, mainly for the Tabajara and Potiguara leaders, who were able to obtain social mobility.
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