Since the 1930s the Kwazá have combined hunting and the planting of gardens with rubber extraction, through which the peoples of the south of Rondônia have become integrated to the global economy. They used to work rubber as hired labor for the whites in exchange for exogenous products such as coffee, sugar, firearms. In the 1970s, the Kwazá and the Aikanã began to work for themselves, selling rubber in the city. They have also been involved in the exploitation of timber of good quality, and exchange mahogany for cars and supermarket goods (like rice, sugar etc.), thus becoming accustomed to the way of life of the whites. The missionaries destroyed other important parts of their culture, and even today, the UNIEDAS Mission (United Evangelical Churches of South America, a fundamentalist protestant church) teaches, for example, that the practice of shamanism is an “evil against God". In this process of acculturation to the world of the whites, the Indians have become dependent on basic food products and medicine which cost money, and, as a result, they have lost their autonomy. Their lands, which are not very fertile, do not contain minerals of any worth, the timber of good quality has practically come to an end, and palm cabbage is almost no longer found in the area. With the collapse of the local rubber market, from 1997 on, what is left are only the retirement pensions of the few old people as a source of family income.

The Kwazá and other peoples of Rondônia, like the Aikanã, were expelled by ranchers from the fertile lands where they originally lived, after the opening of state highway BR-364 in the 1960s. Thus, today, the great majority of the Kwazá live together with the Aikanã and the Latundê in the Tubarão-Latundê indigenous area, demarcated in 1983. The soil of this indigenous area is almost totally sandy. A large part of the indigenous area has lowbrush vegetation. Each year, the region has less virgin forest, which is leading to the rapid depletion of game animals.

The Indigenous Land as a whole has only one leader or chief, who represents the three groups living in it. This leader, today, is a young Aikanã man, assisted by the more elderly people of the community and by the administration of the FUNAI headquarters in Vilhena. Together, the Indians created in 1996 the "Massaká Association of the Aikanã, Latundê and Kuazá Indigenous Peoples" ("Massaka"‚ originally, was the name of an Aikanã Indian). The NGO "Proteção Ambiental Cacoalense"[Cacoal Environmental Protection] (PACA), of Rondônia, has given support, in the form of courses, to the Massaká Association.

As far as the Kwazá of the São Pedro stream, who do not have their lands demarcated, they are seriously threatened by the local ranchers. Fortunately, the Department of Landholding Affairs (DAF) of the FUNAI has been making an effort since September 1997 to recognize the area, since the headwaters of the São Pedro stream, tributary of the Pimenta Bueno River, correspond to one of the original regions of the Kwazá people.