Objective: To evaluate the nutritional status of indigenous children of the Aruak and Karibe linguistic families from the Upper Xingu, Central Brazil, and study the relationship between hemoglobin levels and children's gender, age and nutritional status. In total, 470 children under age ten were studied in 2001/2002. Methods: For children under five years old, the diagnosis of undernutrition was based on the heightfor-age and weight-for-age indices, with a cutoff value of two standard deviations below the mean values expected for the age and gender reference - WHO, 2006. A diagnosis of overweight was made when the weight-for-height indice was two standard deviations above the mean expected for the same reference; children between five and ten years old were classified as being underweight, overweight or obese according to their body mass index (BMI) by gender and age, as proposed by Cole et al. The diagnosis of anemia was based on hemoglobin concentrations below 11.0 g/dl for children between 6 and 59 months old or below 11.5 g/dl for children between 60 and 120 months old. Results/conclusion: Growth deficit was highly prevalent among the Indian children. Low weight-for-height was a very rare condition and overweight was significant among the younger and the older children. About 70% of the children were anemic, and age seems to be the main factor associated with low hemoglobin concentrations.