Indigenous Chihuahua: A War Zone for Three Centuries
Location and Description
The state of Chihuahua is located within the northwest central plains of the Mexican Republic. Bordered by the United States (Texas and New Mexico) on the north and northeast, Chihuahua has a common border with Sonora (on the west and south) and with Sinaloa (on the southwest). The state of Coahuila de Zaragoza lay to the east, while Durango shares much of Chihuahua’s southern boundary.
As Mexico’s largest state, Chihuahua contains a total of 247,455 square kilometers, occupying 12.6% of the national territory. Chihuahua is divided into sixty-seven municipios. Although Chihuahua has the largest area of any Mexican state, it had a 2010 population of only 3,556,574 persons, representing only 3.17% of the national population. In 2010, the capital city Chihuahua had a population of 809,232 persons, making it the twelfth largest city in Mexico. The population of Chihuahua City represents almost one-quarter (22.8%) of the state’s total population.
Geographic Regions
The University of Arizona anthropologist, Professor Anna Maria Alonso states that Chihuahua is 45 percent desert, 30 percent dry grassland and oak savanna, and 25 percent pine forest and subtropical deciduous forest. As a result, only 5 percent of its land area is suitable for crops. The surface of the State of Chihuahua is part of the following physiographic provinces, which are described below and illustrated in the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI) map on the following page:
Sierra Madre Occidental Province: Much of western, central and southern Chihuahua are dominated by the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountain Range, which has elevations that are frequently above 2,000 meters (7,000 feet) and which occupies 43% of the surface area of the state.
Sierras y Llanuras del Norte (Sierras and Plains of the North): Northern and eastern parts of the state are part of the Chihuahua Desert, which represents part of the Central Plateau which runs southeastward into Coahuila, Durango, Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi. The sierras, deserts and plains that dominate the north take up about 57% of the surface area of the state.
The Chihuahua Economy of Today
Today, Chihuahua has 1.6 million of the 52.9 million workers in all of Mexico (2017 data). Nearly half of Chihuahua’s workers — 753,395 workers or 46% of Chihuahua’s work force — are engaged in the manufacturing and commerce industries. It is also among the states with the largest number of assembly plants.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Chihuahua was 706,773 million pesos in 2017, contributing with 3.4% to Mexico’s national GDP of 20.7 million pesos. The Manufacturing and Wholesale and Retail segments contributed to 47% of Chihuahua’s total GDP.
Picturing a Different World
An understanding of Chihuahua’s indigenous inhabitants from the pre-Hispanic era to the Nineteenth Century requires an imagination that dispenses with national borders. The border of the present-day state of Chihuahua with its neighboring Mexican states and the American states on its north is a creation of political entities. These borders may cause the reader to believe that the indigenous groups from Chihuahua were unique to their area and distinct from the indigenous inhabitants of New Mexico, Texas, Coahuila, Sonora, or Durango.
Chihuahua Roots
However, nothing could be further from the truth. Although an international border separates Chihuahua from Texas and New Mexico, the indigenous inhabitants of Chihuahua did in fact have extensive cultural, linguistic, economic and spiritual ties with the indigenous groups of those two American states. For several thousand years, indigenous groups living in Chihuahua have had trading relations with indigenous groups located in other areas.
And many of the Chihuahua Amerindians do in fact share common roots with the Native Americans of New Mexico and Texas. And, up until the last part of the Nineteenth Century, the border of Chihuahua and the United States was a meaningless line in the sand, across which Apaches, Comanches and other groups freely passed.
If you are from Chihuahua, it is likely that you have both indigenous and European ancestors because this frontier region represented both a melting pot and a battleground to the many people who have inhabited it during the last five centuries. Spanish explorers started exploring the region of Chihuahua (which was part of the Spanish province of Nueva Vizcaya) in the mid-Sixteenth Century, especially after the discovery of the Santa Barbara mines in 1567.
The First Spanish Explorers
In 1528, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca became the first known European to travel through what is now known as the State of Chihuahua. More than a decade later (1540-42), Francisco Vasquez de Coronado probably passed through Chihuahua on his way north with 336 Spanish soldiers, four priests, several hundred Mexican-Indian auxiliaries and 1,500 stock animals. Then, in 1562, Francisco de Ibarra, the official founder of Nueva Vizcaya, extensively explored the present-day areas of Zacatecas, Durango, Chihuahua and Coahuila.
Indigenous Groups at Contact
The original inhabitants of Chihuahua belonged to a wide range of nomadic and semi-nomadic groups of hunters, most of which are now culturally extinct. According to the American anthropologist, Edward H. Spicer (1906-1983), the most distinct language groups were: Tarahumara, Warihio (Guarijío), Concho, Jano and Suma. However, the distinction of the latter two was less certain. In the eastern part of Chihuahua the Spaniards also confronted the “Toboso” and Apachean languages.
Ethnic Complexity
In referencing the “ethnic complexity of the region,” William B. Griffen’s “Indian Assimilation in the Franciscan Area of Nueva Vizcaya” provides 127 tribal names for indigenous bands and tribal groups in the area the Spaniards referred to as the “Greater Conchería.” However, because this list included “possible alternate designations” of some groups, Griffen offers detailed descriptions of 89 bands and tribal groups in all. However, Griffen also cautions that a large number of these groups “are not placeable, linguistically or geographically, except within rather broad limits.”
The map on the following page was designed by graphic artist Eddie Martinez and shows the major tribal and linguistic groups in Chihuahua at the time of the Spanish contact in the sixteenth century:
Multiple Given Names
As they made their way through the Western Sierra Madre highlands and the deserts of Bolsón de Mapimí, the Spanish explorers found a wide range of nomadic and semi-nomadic indigenous groups. Some of the indigenous groups were named by different explorers at different times and, as a result, carried two or three names. Anyone who is studying the indigenous groups of Chihuahua may at first find this somewhat confusing.
Nueva Vizcaya (1562)
In 1562, the land encompassing the present-day states of Durango, Sonora, Sinaloa, and parts of Chihuahua and Coahuila was named Nueva Vizcaya after Ibarra’s home province of Vizcaya in Spain. In 1562, Ibarra was appointed governor of the newly formed province of Nueva Vizcaya (New Biscay) in 1562, and the following year he founded the city of Durango to be its capital. The Governor of Nueva Vizcaya was the Captain-General, subordinate to the Viceroy in political matters but to the Audiencia (High Court) of Guadalajara in judicial matters.
Peter Gerhard, in The Northern Frontier of New Spain, compiled a local history of each colonial jurisdiction of Nueva Vizcaya. These local histories include historical information on the original indigenous inhabitants, Spanish settlements, government and church events and economic activities of each jurisdiction. In exploring Gerhard’s work one comes to realize that each jurisdiction, and each community within each jurisdiction, has experienced a unique set of circumstances that set it apart from all other jurisdictions.
The following descriptions apply to some of the better-known and larger recorded indigenous groups. The range, linguistic classification, way of life and the interaction of these tribes are discussed in some detail by several sources.
The Ranchería People
As the Spaniards moved northward into Sinaloa, Sonora and Chihuahua, they found an amazing diversity of indigenous groups. The sedentary people of Central Mexico lived in densely populated areas and “practiced permanent intensive agriculture” and developed stable and complex settlement sites (i.e., towns and cities). In contrast, the Indians of the north (Sonora, Sinaloa and Chihuahua) were referred to as “ranchería people” by the Spaniards. Their fixed points of settlements were usually scattered over an area of several miles and one dwelling may be separated from the next by up to half a mile. The dispersed ranchería locations shifted with the seasonal cycles and soil fertility. Generally, the ranchería people usually cultivated corn, beans, squash, chiles and cotton.
The Conchos
The Concho Indians lived near the junction of the Río Concho River and Río Grande Rivers in northern Chihuahua. This region – known as La Junta de los Ríos – is a historic farming and trading area. The present-day towns of Presidio (Texas) and Ojinaga (Chihuahua) lay at the center of this region. The Conchos name was given to them by the Spaniards. Conchos is Spanish for “shells,” most likely a reference to the many shellfish they found in the Conchos River.
According to Griffen, the Spaniards found the territory of the Conchos to be “most congenial for development” and the Conchos “seem to have opted early to join the Spanish colonial system.” The Spaniards first made contact with the Conchos Indians in 1575, and Franciscan missionaries began working among them in the 1590s. By 1604, the missionaries had established the first mission for the Conchos (San Francisco de Conchos), and soon, after some 4,000 Conchos neophytes converted. The Conchos frequently cooperated with the Spaniards, but also fought against them. Today, they are culturally extinct and have likely been assimilated into the general Chihuahua population.
Tobosos
The Toboso people inhabited the middle reaches of the Conchos River, as well as the Bolsón de Mapimí, in what is now eastern Chihuahua and western Coahuila. They were associated with the Jumano and are sometimes identified as having been part of the Jumano people. John Reed Swanton regarded the Toboso Indians as a “predatory tribe living in the Seventeenth Century in the Bolson de Mapimi and extending northward at least to the Río Grande.”
The Tobosos were first contracted by the Spaniards of the Espejo Expedition to New Mexico in 1582 and were believed to be a small nation. As early as the 1560s, the Tobosos has gone to war with the Spaniards, and by 1576, the Tobosos had begun capturing livestock and learned to ride horses and had caused the rich mines at Indehe and San Buenaventura had been abandoned, while the Santa Bárbara mines could not be worked. By the 1590s, the Spaniards were undertaking campaigns to stop their taking of livestock.
By 1800 the Toboso who remained in modern Mexico had been essentially absorbed into Hispanic culture. However, other Toboso migrated to coastal Texas where they resided in and near Mission Nuestra Señora del Refugio during the early 1800s.
The Suma Indians
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the territory of the Sumas inhabited a range of territory that extended from the vicinity of present-day El Paso westward across northwestern Chihuahua (including the present northernmost municipios of Ascensión, Juárez, and Praxedis G. Guerrero). The Sumas lived along the Rio Grande just south of the present-day city of El Paso and westward to the Rio Casas Grandes. Their territory extended westward from the Rio Grande Valley approximately 200 miles (320 km) to the present northwestern municipalities of Janos and Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, where the Janos and Jocomes ethnicities of northwest Chihuahua lived, which were probably subgroups or were closely related to the Suma. The Sumas were hunter-gatherers, with fixed abodes.
The Sumas were hunter-gatherer nomads who practiced little or no farming. Devastated by smallpox, the Sumas entered the Spanish missions near El Paso and Casas Grandes and merged with the mestizo population, while some Sumas gradually merged with the Apaches from the north. They are now extinct as a distinct people. A smallpox epidemic in the 1780s killed most of the Sumas living at the mission and they soon lost their ethnic identity. The last known man identifying himself as Suma died in 1869.
Jovas
The Jova occupied the upper part of the valley of the Yaqui River Valley, including the villages of Bacaniyagua, Baipoa Oparrapa and Setasura. Their territory encompassed parts of the present-day municipios of Casas Grandes, Nuevo Casas Grandes and Galeana. According to some linguists, the Jova were a tribe connected with the Opata and classified in the Taracahitian family and Uto-Aztecan stock.
The Jova were seasonal agriculturalists who lived in the rugged canyons and mesas of the western Sierra Madre to the east of Sahuaripa (which is in east central Sonora). The Jova were surrounded by the more culturally advanced Opata. The Jovas are an extinct cultural entity today.
Jumanos
The Jumanos of Chihuahua inhabited the Rio Grande between the mouth of the Concho River and the present day El Paso, extending as far west as Casas Grandes in Chihuahua. They are believed to be related to the Suma Indians, the two names possibly being alternates of each other.
The Jumano designation was first used in 1581. They are believed to have ranged from northern New Mexico to Coahuila and from the vicinity of Flagstaff, Arizona to Parral, Chihuahua to the Trinity River of Texas. Actually, as the historian France V. Scholes has pointed out, the term Jumano came into use as a designation for certain groups of indios rayados, painted Indians. The Jumanos are extinct as a cultural entity today.
Pescado Indians
The Pescado Indians – named for the Spanish word for fish – lived along the Río Grande along northern border of Chihuahua and in parts of Texas. At some point, they were absorbed by other Indian groups and the Spanish settlers that moved northward into their tribal lands. The Mansos Indians also lived near present-day El Paso along the Río Grande border area. In 1659 Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Mission was established by Spanish missionaries for the Manso Indians living near present-day Ciudad Juárez.
Coahuiltecan Tribes
The Coahuiltecan tribes roamed through parts of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and most of Texas west of San Antonio River and Cibolo Creek. They were made up of hundreds of bands of hunter-gatherers who ranged over the eastern part of Coahuila, northern Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and southern Texas south and west of San Antonio River and Cibolo Creek. It is believed that the Coahuiltecans reached all the way to the Gulf coast at the mouth of the Nueces. Northeast of that point they were succeeded by Karankawan tribes. Toward the north, the Coahuiltecans were displaced by the Apache and Comanche. However, some tribes along the lower Rio Grande may have belonged to a distinct family, Tamaulipecan (described in 1864 by Orozco y Berra).
Coahuiltecan shelters consisted of small temporary huts of brush or grass, sensible structures given their way of life and the climate of the area over which they ranged. It was the practice of the Coahuiltecans (or Coahuiltecos) to move from one traditional campsite to another, following the seasons and herds of migrating animals. During the Spanish colonial period a majority of the Coahuiltecan natives were displaced from their traditional territories by Spaniards advancing from the south and Apaches advancing from the north. A large number of the small tribal groups or bands belonging to the Coahuiltecan stock remain unknown to this day and even their locations – in some cases – are not clear.
The Coahuiltecan Indians consisted of countless small nomadic bands, each of which was given different names by different explorers, a practice that caused great confusion. Estimates of the total Coahuiltecan population in 1690 vary. One historian compiled a list of 614 Coahuiltecan group names in northeastern Mexico and southern Texas. The average population per group was estimated at 140, giving us a population of 86,000.
Little is known about the linguistic affinity or the cultures of the Coahuiltecan Indians because they eventually disappeared, having been decimated by war, disease or assimilation, at the hands of the Europeans, Comanches, and Apaches.
Varohío (Guarijío)
The Varohío (or Guarijío) Indians are closely related to and speak a language very similar to the Tarahumara (who are discussed below). They inhabited the Western Sierra Madre Mountains along the headwaters of the Río Mayo of both Sonora and Chihuahua. The Guasapar Indians – also related to the Tarahumara – inhabited lands along the Chiniap and Urique Rivers in Chihuahua.
The Tarahumara and Tepehuanes
Among Chihuahua’s indigenous peoples, the Tarahumara and Tepehuanes stand apart, largely because they continue to prosper today as important ethnic identities – in contrast to many of the other indigenous groups which have disappeared as cultural entities. Both the Tarahumara and Tepehuanes are admired and well-studied by academics who have noted their resilience and their fortitude in maintaining a separate identity within the Mexican Republic. Few indigenous groups in the northern Mexican states have this distinction. Exceptions would be the Yaqui and Mayo (or Sonora), the Huichol and Cora (of Nayarit and Jalisco).
The Tarahumara Indians who inhabited southern Chihuahua belonged to the Uto-Aztecan Linguistic Family and originally occupied more than 28,000 square miles of mountainous terrain, an area that is even larger than the state of West Virginia. Today, the Tarahumara are a people whose rich spiritual ideology and strong cultural identity have persevered despite the intrusion of foreign customs. The Spanish originally encountered the Tarahumara throughout Chihuahua upon arrival in the 1500’s, but as the Spanish encroached on their civilization the shy and private Tarahumara gradually retreated to less accessible canyons and valleys in the Sierra Tarahumara.
The Tepehuanes Indians – like their cousins, the Tarahumara – belong to the Uto-Aztecan Linguistic Group. While their strongest presence was in the state of Durango and some western points of Zacatecas, the Tepehuanes also lived and hunted in southern Chihuahua. The Tepehuanes are most famous for their defiant revolt against Spanish rule in 1616-1619. The historian, Dr. Charlotte M. Gradie, has discussed this revolt in great detail in her work, “The Tepehuan Revolt of 1616: Militarism, Evangelism, and Colonialism in Seventeenth-Century Nueva Vizcaya” (The University of Utah Press, 2000).
The Apaches Come to Chihuahua
The Apaches – as latecomers to Chihuahua – probably first arrived in the area of Chihuahua in the Seventeenth Century. They were linguistically related to the Athapaskan speakers of Alaska and western Canada and worked their way south over a period of many centuries. By the middle of the Eighteenth Century, Apache depredations along the entire frontier region, including Chihuahua, had taken their toll on both the Spaniards and many of the other indigenous groups.
Indigenous Resistance
The history of Chihuahua’s indigenous groups is a story of resistance against the intrusions of southern forces, Spaniards, French émigrés, and Indian laborers who settled in Chihuahua to work as laborers (and avoid the excessive taxation of central Mexico). In studying the story of Chihuahua as it progressed through the centuries, one finds mention of one war after another, each fought by various indigenous groups and for various reasons.
The Tepehuanes Revolt of 1616-1619 inflamed western and northwestern Durango and Southern Chihuahua. It is believed that the epidemics that struck the Tepehuanes population in 1594, 1601-02, 1606-07, and 1612-1615 became a catalyst for this rebellion. The famine and disease, writes Charlotte M. Gradie, caused the Tepehuanes culture to undergo “enormous stress from various factors associated with Spanish conquest and colonization.” This stress convinced the Tepehuanes to embrace a return to their traditional way of life before the arrival of the Spaniards. However, after causing great damage to the frontier, the revolt was crushed by the Spanish military. After the failure of the Tepehuanes revolt, the Tarahumara of western and eastern Durango and southern Chihuahua also revolted in 1621 and 1622. This rebellion also met with defeat.
Silver Strikes in Chihuahua
As early as 1567, the silver mines at Santa Barbara were established in the territory of the Conchos Indians. However, in 1631, a vast new silver strike was made at Parral in what is now southern Chihuahua. The strike in Parral led to a large influx of Spaniards and Indian laborers into this area of Tarahumara country north of Santa Barbara. However, the steadily increasing need for labor in the Parral mines, according to Professor Spicer, led to the “forcible recruitment, or enslavement, of non-Christian Indians.”
As Chihuahua became a center of the silver trade, the tremendous pressures on the indigenous inhabitants inflamed and provoke a flurry of revolts. From 1644 to 1652, the Tobosos, Salineros and Conchos revolted in northern Durango and southern Chihuahua. In “Indian Assimilation in the Franciscan Area of Nueva Vizcaya,” the anthropologist Professor William B. Griffen, commenting on the establishment of the silver mines at Parral in 1631, notes that the “influx of new people and the resulting development of Spanish society no doubt placed increased pressure upon the native population in the region.”
Griffen also cites “a five-year period of drought, accompanied by a plague,” which had occurred immediately preceding the uprising as a contributing factor. The large area of southern Chihuahua inhabited by the Conchos Indians included the highway between the mining districts of Parral, Cusihuiriachic, and Chihuahua.
Very abruptly, in 1644, nearly all of the general area north and east of the Parral district of Chihuahua was aflame with Indian rebellion as the Tobosos, Cabezas, and Salineros rose in revolt. In the spring of 1645, the Conchos – long-time allies of the Spaniards – also took up arms against the Europeans, allying themselves with the Julimes, Xiximoles, Tocones, and Cholomes. Although this revolt ended in defeat in 1645, a new revolt of the Tarahumara took place between 1648 and 1652. Then, between 1666 and 1680, the Salineros, Conchos, Tobosos and Tarahumara all rose in rebellion following a drought, famine and epidemic.
The Great Northern Revolt Begins (1680)
In the meantime, to the north, Franciscan missionaries had successfully pacified New Mexico, claiming some 34,000 Indian converts. By 1630, the colony at Santa Fe consisted of 250 Spaniards and 750 people of Indian and Spanish mixture. Starting around 1660, drought and crop failure started to plague New Mexico with increasing frequency. Starvation caused hundreds of Indians to die. Tension increased between the Indian population and the Spaniards led to a serious revolt in 1680.
Massacre in New Mexico (1680)
In 1680, Pope, a Pueblo Indian medicine man, having assembled a unified Pueblo nation, led a successful revolt against Spanish colonists in New Mexico. Beginning at dawn on August 11, 1680, the insurgents killed twenty-one Franciscan missionaries serving in the various pueblos. At least 400 Spanish colonists were murdered in the first days of the rebellion. On August 15, Indian warriors converged on Santa Fe. They cut off the water supply to the 2,000 men, women and children there, and they sang, “The Christian god is dead, but our sun god will never die.” The Spaniards counterattacked, causing the Pueblos to pull back momentarily. Then, on August 21 the Spaniards and mestizos trapped inside of Santa Fe fled, making their way southward down the Rio Grande to El Paso al Norte Mission, which had been built in 1659.
Eradication of Spanish Cultural Elements
Once the Spaniards had been expelled, Pope initiated a campaign to eradicate Spanish cultural elements, disallowing the use of the Spanish language, and insisting that Indians baptized as Christians be bathed in water to negate their baptisms. Religious ceremonies of the Catholic Church were banned and the Indians were stopped from verbally using the names of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints.
Breeding and Selling Horses
The Pope Revolt, in addition to driving the Spaniards from the Santa Fe-Albuquerque region for more than a decade, also provided the Pueblo Indians with three to five thousand horses. Almost immediately, they started breeding larger herds, with the intention of selling horses to the Apache and Comanche Indians. As a result, the widespread use of the horse revolutionized Indian life and became a useful tool for war among some indigenous groups.
The Revolt Spreads to Chihuahua and Sonora
The revolt in New Mexico jostled many of the indigenous tribes of Nueva Vizcaya (Chihuahua, Durango, Sonora) into action. As the rebellion spread, hundreds were killed but the Spanish military, caught woefully off-guard, could only muster small squads for the defense of the settlements in Chihuahua and Sonora. During the power vacuum in New Mexico and Nueva Vizcaya following the 1680 revolt, the Apache Indians started to push far to the southwest, arriving at the gates of Sonora to attack Spanish and Opata settlements. Then, in 1684, as the Spaniards nursed their wounds at their new headquarters in El Paso, more rebellions popped up across all of northern Chihuahua. From Casas Grandes to El Paso, Conchos, Sumas, Chinarras, Mansos, Janos, and Jocomes all took up arms.
The Frontier in Flames (1684)
In November 1684, Governor Joseph de Neyra of Nueva Vizcaya reported that the indigenous rebels had taken 40,000 head of livestock from the northern frontier area. Unrest in the province continued into the following year as the Viceroy called for the construction of a presidio of fifty men near Casas Grandes (Chihuahua). In July 1688, the Janos and Jocome Indians once again attacked Casas Grandes. However, in a retaliatory raid a month later, a large Spanish force defeated the Janos, Jocomes, and Sumas, killing 200 warriors and capturing many women and children. Eventually the rebellion was put down, resulting in the execution of fifty-two Indians at Casas Grandes and twenty-five more in the Sonora mission area.
The Tarahumara at War (1690-1698)
A general uprising of the Tarahumara and other tribes in 1690 and 1691 also took place in Chihuahua. The Tarahumara Indians at a northern mission rebelled and killed their missionaries. The Indians participating were led to believe that their leaders had the power to make Spanish guns useless. In addition, the Tarahumara were told that any of their warriors killed in battle would rise again after three days. However, within months, Spanish troops arrived from Parral and were able to kill the primary leader, ending the rebellion.
Epidemics of measles and smallpox broke out among the Tarahumara in 1693 and 1695. During this time, a belief developed that the ringing of church bells spread measles and smallpox. This may have contributed to two more uprisings in 1696 and 1698. The large section of Tarahumara country was in open revolt. Units from several presidios were utilized in bringing the rebellious Tarahumara under control one more time.
The Reconquest of New Mexico (1692)
The Pueblos lived as a free and independent people for twelve years. However, in 1692, missionaries and Spanish government officials focused on working together to invade New Mexico once again. By this time, Pope had died and the Pueblos had disbanded and returned to their old ways, which included each pueblo being autonomous from the others. Governor Diego de Vargas saw that the time was ripe for the Spaniards to return to New Mexico.
Pulling together a re-colonizing expedition of one hundred soldiers, seventy families, and eighteen Franciscan friars, together with some Indian allies, de Vargas left El Paso for Santa Fe on October 4, 1693. Pledging an end to the abuse that the Spaniards had inflicted on the Pueblo Indians up to 1680, Vargas’ forces surrounded Santa Fe and then cut off the water supply. By 1694, Vargas had ended all effective resistance in New Mexico.
On June 4, 1696, the Pueblo Indians attempted another revolt that resulted in the killing of five missionaries and twenty-one settlers. After a few churches were burned down, Spanish forces defeated the insurgents. Unlike the Revolt of 1680, this rebellion had been poorly planned and lasted only six months.
The Revolts of the late Seventeenth Century led the Spaniards to design a more mobile force that could wage war against swift, fast-moving Indian raiders. Although New Mexico saw some respite from war, Chihuahua continued to suffer the ravages of constant raids well into the Nineteenth Century.
The Apache Threat
During the Eighteenth Century a new threat would appear in Chihuahua. The Apache Indians, starting in 1751, became a constant and unrelenting enemy of the Spanish administration. As the Apaches attacked settlements throughout northern Chihuahua, the Spaniards were forced to establish a series of presidios to contain the threat. However, the steps taken to contain the Apache depredations had limited effect and, by 1737, Captain Juan Mateo Mange reported that “many mines have been destroyed, 15 large estancias along the frontier has been totally destroyed, having lost two hundred head of cattle, mules, and horses; several missions have been burned and two hundred Christians have lost their lives to the Apache enemy, who sustains himself only with the bow and arrow, killing and stealing livestock. All this has left us in ruins.”
By 1760, Spain had established a total of twenty-three presidios in the frontier regions. But the Apaches, responding to these garrisons, developed adaptation in their mode of warfare. Apaches became such skilled horsemen that they effectively bypassed the presidios and continuously eluded the Spanish military forces. Professor Robert Salmon, the author of “Indian Revolts in Northern New Spain: A Synthesis of Resistance (1680-1786)” writes that, by the end of the Eighteenth Century, “Indian warriors exacted high tolls in commerce, livestock, and lives.”
Professor Griffen has explained that the Apache raids played a significant role in the assimilation of the Chihuahua indigenous groups, stating that the Apache raiders “displaced or assimilated other groups of hunter-gatherers known as the Sumas, Mansos, Chinarras, Sumanos, Jocomes, and Janos.”
Comanche Raids
During the Eighteenth Century, the Comanche Indians had also begun to raid Spanish settlements throughout Texas and northern Chihuahua. T. R. Fehrenbach, the author of “Comanches: The Destruction of a People,” writes that “a long terror descended over the entire frontier, because Spanish organization and institutions were totally unable to cope with war parties of long-striking, swiftly moving Comanches.”
Mounting extended campaigns into Spanish territory, the Comanches avoided forts and armies. T. R. Fehrenbach states that these Amerindians were “eternally poised for war.” They traveled across great distances and struck their victims with great speed. “They rampaged across mountains and deserts,” writes Mr. Fehrenbach, “scattering to avoid detection – surrounding peaceful villages of peasants for dawn raids. They waylaid travelers, ravaged isolated ranches [and] destroyed whole villages along with their inhabitants.”
Pacification of the Frontier
In 1786, the Viceroy of Nueva España, Bernardo de Galvez, instituted a series of reforms for the pacification of the frontier. He constructed peace establishments (Establecimientos de Paz) for Apaches willing to settle down and become peaceful. Through this policy, several Apache bands were induced to forgo their raiding and warfare habits in exchange for farmlands, food, clothing, agricultural implements and hunting arms.
The Independent Mexican Republic
Although the Spanish administration had negotiated with both the Apaches and Comanches in an effort to bring peace to the frontier era, the establishment of the Mexican Republic in 1822 led to a renewal of the Comanche and Apache wars. Between 1836 and 1852, the Chiricahua Apaches fought a running battle against both American and Mexican federal forces. The Apaches continued to defy both Mexico and the United States for many years until 1886, when Geronimo, the famous Chiricahua leader, surrendered in the Sierra Madres to American forces that had crossed the border for the special purpose of capturing Geronimo.
The First Mexican Census: 1895
The first Mexican Census took place on October 20, 1895. The results of this census revealed that Chihuahua had 265,546 citizens, of which 19,327 spoke indigenous languages and represented 7.3% of the total population. As noted in the table below, Tarahumar was spoken by 94% of Chihuahua’s indigenous language speakers.
Indigenous Languages Spoken in the State of Chihuahua: 1895 Census
| Indigenous Language | Population in 1895 | % of all Indigenous Speakers |
| Tarahumara | 18,174 | 94.0% |
| Náhuatl | 355 | 1.8% |
| Pima | 324 | 1.7% |
| Tepehuanes | 286 | 1.5% |
| Other Languages | 188 | 1.0% |
| Total Indigenous Speakers | 19,327 | 100% |
Source: Dirección General de Estadística, Censo General de la Republica Mexicana. 1895: Resumen general. Mexico: Ministerio de Fomento, 1899, pp. 90-107.
The 1921 Census
In the unusual 1921 Mexican census, residents of each state were asked to classify themselves in several categories, including “indígena pura” (pure indigenous), “indígena mezclada con blanca” (indigenous mixed with white) and “blanca” (white). Out of a total state population of 401,622, 51,228 persons (or 12.8%) claimed to be of pure indigenous background. Another 201,182 – or 50.1% – classified themselves as being mixed, while a 145,926 (36.3%) claimed to be white. The results of this census are shown on the following page:
The 1921 Mexican Census: Racial Classification in Chihuahua
| Racial Classification | Number of Persons | % of Total State Population |
| Indigena Pura | 51,228 | 12.80% |
| Indigena Mezclada con Blanca | 201,182 | 50.10% |
| Blanca | 145,926 | 36.30% |
| Question Ignored or Other Classifications | 3,286 | 0.80% |
| Total Population | 401,622 | 100% |
Source: Departamento de la Estadística Nacional, Annuario de 1930: Estados Unidos Mexicanos (Tacubaya, Distrito Federal,1932), pp. 48-50; Departamento de la Estadistica Nacional, Estados Unidos Mexicanos, “Censos General de Habitantes: 30 de Noviembre de 1921, Estado de Chihuahua,” (Mexico, Distrito Federal: Talleres Graficos de la Nación, 1926), pp. 20,24.
Although the persons of “indígena pura” heritage represented 12.8% of the state population, the actual number of people speaking indigenous languages amounted to 23,585 persons five years of age or more, or 7.3% of the population. The two most commonly spoke languages were the Tarahumara (23,585) and Tepehuán (1,741). However, by 1930, the total number of indigenous speakers had dropped to 13,876 persons.
Moving into the Twenty-First Century
By the beginning of the Twenty-First Century, the Tarahumara and Tepehuanes continued to represent the largest surviving groups of Amerindians within Chihuahua. According to the 2000 census, the population of persons five years and more who spoke indigenous languages amounted to 84,086 individuals.
The largest indigenous groups represented in Chihuahua at that time were: Tarahumara (70,842), Tepehuán (6,178), Náhuatl (1,011), Guarijío (917), Mazahua (740), Mixteco (603), Zapoteco (477), Pima (346), Chinanteco (301), and Otomí (220). Of these groups, only the Tarahumara, Tepehuán, Guarijío and Pima-speakers were indigenous to Chihuahua and adjacent states. The other groups are representative of migrants from southern Mexican states, such as Guerrero, Puebla and Oaxaca.
The 2010 Census
In the 2010 census, the State of Chihuahua ranked 17th among the Mexican states with 104,014 persons five years of age and older who spoke indigenous languages, representing 3.5% of the Mexican Republic’s total indigenous-speaking population. The vast majority of Chihuahua’s indigenous speakers – 85,316 – spoke the Tarahumara tongue. Coincidentally, the Tarahumara language was also the 17th most spoken indigenous language in Mexico. The Tepehuanes had the 26th most commonly spoken language. Other languages spoken within the state include Mixtec and Náhuatl.
The 2010 Census: Indigenous Languages Spoken in Chihuahua
| Indigenous Language | Population 3 Years and Older Who Speak an Indigenous Language | Percent of all Indigenous Speakers |
| Tarahumanara | 85,316 | 78.0% |
| Tepehuano de Chihuahua (Tepehuano del Norte) | 8,396 | 7.7% |
| Unspecified Indigenous Languague | 5,986 | 5.5% |
| Mixteco | 2,5 | 2.3% |
| Náhuatl | 1,286 | 1.2% |
| Zapoteco | 894 | 0.8% |
| Guarijo | 887 | 0.8% |
| Chinanteco | 839 | 0.8% |
| Mazahua | 803 | 0.7% |
| Total | 109,378 | 100% |
Source: INEGI. Censo de Población y Vivienda 2010: Tabulados del Cuestionario Básico: Población de 3 Años y Más que Habla Lengua Indígena por Entidad Federativa y Lengua.
Most of the Zapoteco, Chinanteco and Mixteco speakers listed in the Chihuahua census were either migrants from Oaxaca or Guerrero, or they were the children of migrants.
Indigenous Municipios of Chihuahua (2010)
In the 2010 census, Chihuahua had only two municipios in which more than 10% of the population spoke an indigenous language: Guachochi and Guadalupe y Calvo. The municipios in Chihuahua with the largest populations (by percent) of residents who speak indigenous populations is shown in the following table:
Chihuahua’s Most Indigenous Municipio (2010 Census)
| Municipio | Population of Persons 3 Years of Age and More Who Speak an Indigenous Language | % of Total Indigenous Population | Most Spoken Language | % | Second Most Spoken Language | % |
| Guachochi | 27,967 | 25.6% | Tarahumara | 98.3% | Tepehuano | 0.6% |
| Guadalupe y Calvo | 14,341 | 13.1% | Tepehuano | 55.3% | Tarahumara | 42.5% |
| Urique | 9,060 | 8.3% | Tarahumara | 97.1% | Various | 22.9% |
| Balleza | 7,856 | 7.2% | Tarahumara | 97.5% | Tepehuano | 0.3% |
| Juárez | 6,680 | 6.1% | Tarahumara | 12.7% | Náhuatl | 10.0% |
| Chihuahua | 6,615 | 6.0% | Tarahumara | 66.6% | Náhuatl | 2.9% |
| Batopilas | 6,462 | 5.9% | Tarahumara | 99.2% | Various | 0.8% |
| Bocoyna | 5,773 | 5.3% | Tarahumara | 98.6% | Various | 1.4% |
| Carichí | 4,240 | 3.9% | Tarahumara | 99.7% | Various | 0.3% |
| State of Chihuahua | 109,378 | 100% | Tarahumara | 78% | Tepehuano | 7.7% |
INALI. Poblacion de 3 Años y Más por Entidad y Municipio Según Habla Indígena Y Lengua.
Chihuahua’s Most Indigenous Municipio (2010 Census)
As noted in the preceding table, Tarahumara and Tepehuano were the two languages spoken in most of Chihuahua’s municipios. However, Náhuatl and migrant languages from Oaxaca were also spoken by some people in Chihuahua.
Recent Trends
The population of indigenous speakers in Chihuahua has steadily increased from 61,504 in 1990 to 84,086 in 2000 and to 109,378 in 2010. However, during the same time period, the percentage of Tarahumara speakers in the State fluctuated from 81.9% in 1990 to 84.2% in 2000 and down to 78% in 2010.
At the same time, the Tepehuanes have seen a mild increase from 4.8% of the indigenous speaking population in 1990 to 7.3% in 2000 and 7.7% in 2010. The Mixtecs have also witnessed a moderate increase in their population too.
According to the 2018 map of Atlas de los Pueblos Indígenas de México. – Instituto Nacional de los Pueblos Indígenas / INALI, Chihuahua’s indigenous peoples are primarily located in the southwestern corner of the state:
Chihuahua: The Land of Mestizaje
Over the centuries, the mestizaje and assimilation of the indigenous Chihuahua people were widespread and today most of the state is truly Mexican in its makeup. Most of the people of Chihuahua today do not speak Indian languages or practice Indian customs. However, the assimilation of Chihuahua’s people was a process that took place over several centuries and the land of Chihuahua – now at peace – was a dangerous battleground for many generations.
Copyright © 2019 by John P. Schmal. All Rights Reserved.
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