Complex sentence: They are known as being part of the Maku linguistic family and have been in contact with the frontiers of colonization since the 18th century; there are records of countless epidemics of measles, smallpox and influenza which decimated the population.
Split into simpler sentences: They are known as part of the Maku linguistic family, and have been in contact with the frontiers of colonization since the 18th century. There are records of countless epidemics of measles, smallpox, and influenza, which decimated the population.