The first historical records of the occupation of human groups in the region date back to before 1690, when Spanish and Portuguese missionaries, drug collectors, and troop leaders arrived in the Upper Solimões River. At that time, the indigenous peoples living there were grouped in towns with thousands of inhabitants on the banks of the Solimões River (Amazonas) and its tributaries and on the lower course of the Içá River (Putumayo) and practiced trade based on regional networks. With the arrival of the Spanish Jesuits, many of these indigenous towns gave way to colonized settlements and in this process some ethnic groups, such as the Omaguas, disappeared; others, such as the Kokama and Tikuna settled in new groupings establishing a continuous interethnic relationship with the Spanish explorers and Jesuits.

This form of occupation of large indigenous groups along the banks of large rivers meant that smaller groups that sought not to establish contact with the local colonization process became internalized in firm lands, living atomized in family nuclei with few external exchange relationships. By the end of the 19th century, when the cauceros arrived in the region, the Tikuna were already settled, especially along the banks of the Solimões River (Amazonas) where they became known for their fishing and canoe-building skills.

The exploitation of rubber led to an expansion of the relations between settlers and indigenous people. The Tikuna left their large malocas and began to live in family groups scattered around rubber plantations, serving as key laborers in rubber extraction. The Kokama, who until then had lived in Peru, began to migrate to the Alto Solimões and joined the Tikuna in rubber tapping. Historical and anthropological records indicate that during this period the indigenous population was intensely exposed to violence and disease, the consequences of which are still observable today.

With the end of the rubber cycle, the indigenous peoples of the region began to organize themselves autonomously and live from a subsistence economy. In Brazil, it was during this period that indigenous agencies began to operate in the region, as is the case of the Indigenous Protection Service (SPI), today FUNAI, thus forming a new cycle of relations with external agents, in this case governmental agents.

Today, fishing is one of the most important productive activities for the Tikuna and other people of the region, with fish being the main source of protein. The basis of their diet is fish with manioc flour, which is complemented with other products from family farming, such as bananas, fruits harvested and food purchased in the city, such as rice, coffee, pasta and cookies. Like other indigenous people, there is little monetary movement among them; however, they trade and exchange some products such as manioc flour and bananas. Many indigenous people are employed in public functions such as health and education, and receive some financial benefits from social security policies, such as retirement.

The Tikuna language is widely spoken by tens of thousands of inhabitants whose communities are distributed in three countries: Brazil, Peru, and Colombia. In the villages on the Brazilian side, the intensive use of the Tikuna language is not threatened by the proximity of the cities or by coexistence with speakers of other languages within their own area. The Kokama language, of Tupi origin, has been replaced mainly by Portuguese in Brazil or Spanish in Peru and Colombia.

As far as inter- and intra-ethnic political relations are concerned, the indigenous peoples in Colombia are organized more autonomously than in neighboring countries. Each indigenous people in Colombian territory is traditionally represented from their own structures that were inherited thousands of years ago by their ancestors, however under the recognition of the government in the legal figure of partialities or Cabildos (administrative authority representative of the indigenous community).