Abstract
The 2010 Brazilian Population Census, conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), improved research of the indigenous population, introducing on its ethnic sense, but also the language spoken at home and geographical location, which are indigenous population criteria for identifying in censuses from different countries. The results potentially generated a great knowledge of the existing indigenous diversity in Brazil and a better understanding on the composition of this population segment. In 1991, the category ``Indigenous'' has been included as one of the options in the color/race question of the Brazilian national censuses. 1991 and 2000 censuses did not identify the each ethnic groups as only used as criterion the generic Indian, leaving to identify more than two hundred groups who inhabited the Brazilian territory. The ``indigenous'' previously raised by census 1991 and 2000 should not be used as a synonym and not as a substitute for ``ethnic groups'', of ``indigenous groups'' or ``indigenous population'', along the lines that predominate in the specialized anthropological literature. In 2010, for the first time in the history, IBGE provided a specific research of the census for the indigenous ethnic groups in the country.