It is possible to say that, in general, the Guajajara, the Eastern branch of the Tenetehara, live in the State of Maranhão, and the Tembé, the Western branch, in the State of Pará. However, a small part of the Tembé lives on the right bank of the Gurupi River, in Maranhão.

The Tembé villages are divided into three blocks. The first are those built along the Gurupi River. The villages on the river's right bank belong to the Alto Turiaçu Indigenous Land, which has 530,524 hectares and has been homologued and registered. The Guajá and the Urubu Ka´apor Indians inhabit this region as well. The Tembé on the left bank of the Gurupi River are in the Alto Rio Guamá Indigenous Land, which has 279,897 hectares and has been homologued and registered as well. In this area also live Ka´apor, Guajá, Kreje and Munduruku Indians. On this side of the river there is also another distinct block of Tembé villages, which are located in the vicinity of the Guamá River.

The third block is formed by the Tembé who live in the Turé-Mariquita Indigenous Land, which has 147 hectares, which has been homologued and registered too. It is located on the basin of the Acará River, a tributary of the Moju, which empties in the sea a little further South of the Guamá River's mouth. The location of these Tembé is the result of an advance they made, in the 19th Century, over the territory of the Turiwara Indians, with whom they lived until recently. Today, despite its name, the Tembé Indigenous Land, also on the Acará River basin but more to the South, has a population not of Tembé Indians but of Turiwara instead.