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On the older sources, Francisco de Paula Ribeiro, a Portuguese military officer, whose texts are published in the Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, provides the richest and most reliable information on the situation of the Canela and other Timbira and the conquest of their lands by the advance of cattle-raisers in the beginning of the XIXth Century.

As for ethnological studies, the first major work is The Eastern Timbira, by Curt Nimuendajú, who visited the Canela six times between 1928 and 1936.

William Crocker began his ethnological research with the Ramkokamekrá Canela in 1957 and has consistently returned to their villages up to the present day, such that his visits total more than 72 months of fieldwork. He has several Canela field assistants, who write or tape daily notes. Besides the first volume of his work The Canela (Eastern Timbira), he has published several articles on different aspects of the life of the Canela. Together with his wife, Jean Crocker, he has published a lighter book, The Canela: Bonding through Kinship, Ritual, and Sex, the purpose of which is to stimulate the interest of university students in ethnological questions.

The analysis of the messianic movement among the Canela in 1963, undertaken by Manuela Carneiro da Cunha, uses as sources the texts published by William Crocker.

Jack and Jô Popies, of the Wycliffe Bible Translators spent 22 years (from 1968 to 1990) among the Canela translating the New Testament to the native language.They were well-liked by the population and taught scores of young people to read and write in Canela.

The National Museum of Natural History, of the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, DC, where William Crocker (now retired) worked, has a vast collection of material on the Canela: many photos, unedited 16 mm and super 8 films from 1970. In 1997, a video film was begun and finished in 1999. The author also has left in the Smithsonian written and spoken diaries in Canela and Portuguese, tape-recordings of songs (also in the US Library of Congress) and myths in Canela.

In Brazilian institutions, there are collections of Canela artifacts in the Museu Goeldi (Belém), in the Museu Nacional (Rio de Janeiro) and in the Museu Paulista (São Paulo).

The author collected less material among the Apanyekrá than among the Ramkokamekrá. He did not make any collection of specific artifacts of the Apanyekrá, although many Apanyekrá items may be found in the collections. No-one has taped Apanyekrá music with high quality equipment as was done among the Ramkokamekrá. Nor have diaries written by the Indians been collected.

The Master's dissertation by Maria Elisa Ladeira, The Exchange of Names and the Exchange of Spouses: A Contribution to the Study of Timbira Kinship, deals more with the Apanyekrá than with the Ramkokamekrá, comparing the first to the Krahô and the Apinajé.