Information from the Asuriní indicates the Xingu river as the region they came from, where they used to live with the Parakanã, comprising a single people in the past. It is surmised that during the first decades of the 20th century, the Asuriní abandoned the Xingu region, motivated by a series of internal fissions and conflicts with other indigenous peoples. As a result, they relocated towards the east, occupying the headwaters of the Pacajá river and later the shores of the Trocará river, where they are found until today.

Currently, they live in the Trocará Indigenous Territory, 24 kilometres to the north of the centre of Tucuruí municipality (Pará), in which they are located. Administrative demarcation of the 21,722 hectares of this Indigenous Territory was approved by the Decree no. 87,845 of 22nd November 1982, registered in the Tucuruí land registry and the Federal Heritage Service.

The Trocará IT is traversed north to south across its entire length by the BR-153 which thereby divides the area into two parts. The village and the FUNAI post are located to the east of the road, in the section bordered by the Tocantins river. The area situated to the west is a rectangle of forest comprising one of the region's last vestiges of primary tropical rainforest.

The Trocará IT is set within the region covered by the Grande Carajás Project, which includes Maranhão State and parts of Pará and Tocantins. This immense mineral-metallurgical exploration program, developed in conjunction with a series of infrastructural works (such as the Tucuruí hydroelectric plant and the railway linking the Serra dos Carajás with São Luís), has led to radical changes in the socio-economic structure of the region inhabited by the Asuriní.

The Tucuruí Hydroelectric Plant, located about 30 kilometres upriver of the Trocará IT, completely transformed the municipality. Its construction between 1975 and 1984 entailed the influx of thousands of people into the region. Thus between 1970 and 1980, Tucuruí's annual growth rate was 22.7%, while during the same period Belém presented an annual growth rate of 3.3%. The Asuriní territory was not flooded by the Tucuruí HEP reservoir. Located downriver of the dam, the Asuriní suffered what was conventionally called 'indirect effects,' that is, the consequences of the deep transformations in the region's socio-economic structure and the sweeping ecological change resulting from the project's construction.

These transformations include the installation of a series of farm-holdings in the region. The Trocará IA is now completely surrounded by cattle ranches and comprises one of the few remaining areas of forest in the municipality.

The deforestation surrounding the indigenous reserve has had a negative impact on the fauna within the Asuriní territory. As a result, the Indians complain that that hunting is increasingly difficult as many species can no longer be found there. At the same time, the Trocará IA's forest attracts numerous outside hunters who constantly invade the indigenous territory.

Another indirect effect of the hydroelectric plant and the accelerated occupation of the region was a large increase in the incidence of malaria among the Asuriní, which was the group's main health problem in 1985.