First Contact: 1531

Spanish forces first entered the coastal region of Sinaloa and Sonora in the 1531 when the professional lawyer turned Conquistador, Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán, led an expedition of 300 Spaniards and 10,000 Indian allies (Tlaxcalans, Aztecs and Tarascans) into area. In March 1531, Guzmán’s army reached the site of present-day Culiacán (now in Sinaloa), where his force engaged an army of 30,000 warriors in a pitched battle. The indigenous forces were decisively defeated and, as Professor Peter Gerhard notes, the victors “proceeded to enslave as many people as they could catch.” The indigenous people confronted by Guzmán belonged to the Cáhita language group, which spoke eighteen closely related dialects in both Sinaloa and Sonora.

During his stay in Sinaloa, Guzmán’s army was ravaged by an epidemic that killed many of his Amerindian auxiliaries. Finally, in October 1531, after establishing San Miguel de Culiacán on the San Lorenzo River, Guzmán returned to the south, his mostly indigenous army decimated by hunger and disease. But the Spanish post at Culiacán remained, Mr. Gerhard writes, as “a small outpost of Spaniards surrounded on all sides but the sea by hostile Indians kept in a state of agitation” by the slave-hunting activities of the Spaniards. Nuño de Guzmán was eventually brought to justice for his genocidal actions.

Sonora as Part of Nueva Vizcaya (1562)

In 1562, Sonora was included in the newly established Spanish province of Nueva Vizcaya, which originally took up a great deal of territory (610,000 square kilometers), most of which today corresponds with four Mexican states, Chihuahua, Durango, Sinaloa and Sonora. However, in 1733, Sinaloa and Sonora were detached from Nueva Vizcaya and given recognition as the province of Sonora y Sinaloa.

The Ranchería People

As the Spaniards moved northward they found an amazing diversity of indigenous groups. Unlike the more concentrated Amerindian groups of central Mexico, the Indians of the north were referred to as “ranchería people” by the Spaniards. Their fixed points of settlements (rancherías) 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 renowned anthropologist, Professor Edward H. Spicer (1906-1983), writing in “Cycles of Conquest: The Impact of Spain, Mexico, and the United States on the Indians of the Southwest, 1533-1960,” stated that most ranchería people were agriculturalists and farming was their primary activity. Jesuit missionaries first started their efforts to convert the Cáhitans to Christianity in 1591.

Early Spanish Colonization (1590s)

Large-scale colonization and military action in Sonora did not start until the 1590s, when Jesuit missionaries and Spanish armed forces began to move through the area. For the next century, most of Sonora was at peace while missionaries did their work. However, in 1740, Sonora’s most important tribal groups — the Yaqui, Pima and Mayo Indians — rose in revolt, and for the next 160 years, Sonora was almost constantly at war. An invasion by a northern people called the Chiricahua Apaches complicated the already bad relationship between the Spanish colonial authorities and the indigenous people living in Sonora.  Not until 1929 did the last of the Yaquis surrender to the Mexican Government.

Hurdaide’s Offensive in Sinaloa (1599-1600)

In 1599, Captain Diego de Hurdaide established San Felipe y Santiago on the site of the modern city of Sinaloa. From here, Captain Hurdaide waged a vigorous military campaign that subjugated the Cáhita-speaking Indians of the Fuerte River – the Sinaloas, Tehuecos, Zuaques, and Ahomes. These indigenous groups, numbering approximately 20,000 people, resisted strongly.

Initial Contact with the Mayos and Yaquis (1609-1610)

The Mayo Indians occupied some fifteen towns along the Mayo and Fuerte rivers of southern Sonora and northern Sinaloa. As early as 1601, they had developed a curious interest in the Jesuit-run missions of their neighbors. The Mayos sent delegations to inspect the Catholic churches and, as Professor Spicer observes, “were so favorably impressed that large groups of Mayos numbering a hundred or more also made visits and became acquainted with Jesuit activities.” As the Jesuits began their spiritual conquest of the Mayos, Captain Hurdaide, in 1609, signed a peace treaty with the military leaders of the Mayos.

At contact, the Yaqui Indians occupied the coastal region of Sonora along the Yaqui River. Divided into eighty autonomous communities, their primary activity was agriculture. Although the Yaqui Indians had resisted Guzmán’s advance in 1531, they had welcomed Francisco de Ibarra who came in peace in 1565, apparently in the hopes of winning the Spaniards as allies in the war against their traditional enemies, the Mayos.

In 1609, as Captain Hurdaide became engaged with the pacification of the Ocoronis (another Cahita-speaking group of northern Sinaloa), he reached the Yaqui River, where he was confronted by a group of Yaquis. Then, in 1610, with the Mayo and Lower Pima Indians as his allies, Captain Hurdaide returned to Yaqui territory with a force of 2,000 Indians and forty Spanish soldiers. He was soundly defeated. When he returned with another force of 4,000 Indian foot soldiers and fifty mounted Spanish cavalry, he was again defeated in a bloody day-long battle. 

Conversion of the Yaquis and Mayos (1613-1620)

In 1613, at their own request, the Mayos accepted Jesuit missionaries. Soon after, the Jesuit Father Pedro Mendez established the first mission in Mayo territory. In the first fifteen days, more than 3,000 persons received baptism. By 1620, with 30,000 persons baptized, the Mayos had been concentrated in seven mission towns.

In 1617, the Yaquis, utilizing the services of Mayo intermediaries, also invited the Jesuit missionaries to begin their work among them. Professor Spicer noted that after observing the Mayo-Jesuit interactions that started in 1613, the Yaquis seemed to be impressed with the Jesuits. Bringing a message of everlasting life, the Jesuits impressed the Yaquis with their spirituality and dedication. Their concern for the well being of the Indians won the confidence of the Yaqui people. In seeking to protect the Yaquis from exploitation by mine owners and encomenderos, the Jesuits came into direct conflict with the Spanish political authorities. From 1617 to 1619, nearly 30,000 Yaquis were baptized. By 1623, the Jesuits had reorganized the Yaquis from about eighty rancherías into eight mission villages.

Detachment of the Province of Sinaloa and Sonora (1733)

In 1733, Sinaloa and Sonora were detached from Nueva Vizcaya and given recognition as the province of Sonora y Sinaloa. The historian Professor Susan M. Deeds commented that this detachment represented a recognition of “the growth of a mining and ranching secular society in this northwestern region.”

Rebellion of the Yaqui, Pima, and Mayo Indians (1740)

The Yaqui and Mayo Indians had lived in peaceful coexistence with the Spaniards since the early part of the Seventeenth Century. Professor Deeds, in describing the causes of this rebellion, observes that the Jesuits had ignored “growing Yaqui resentment over lack of control of productive resources.” During the last half of the Seventeenth Century, so much agricultural surplus was produced that storehouses needed to be built. These surpluses were used by the missionaries to extend their activities northward into the California and Pima missions. The immediate cause of the rebellion is believed to have been a poor harvest in late 1739, followed in 1740 by severe flooding which exacerbated food shortages. 

Professor Deeds also points out that the “increasingly bureaucratic and inflexible Jesuit organization obdurately disregarded Yaqui demands for autonomy in the selection of their own village officials.” Thus, this rebellion, writes Professor Deeds, was “a more limited endeavor to restore the colonial pact of village autonomy and territorial integrity.” At the beginning of the revolt, an articulate leader named El Muni emerged in the Yaqui community. El Muni and another Yaqui leader, Bernabé, took the Yaquis’ grievances to local civil authorities.

The initial stages of the 1740 revolt saw sporadic and uncoordinated activity in Sinaloa and Sonora, primarily taking place in the Mayo territory and in the Lower Pima Country. Catholic churches were burned to the ground while priests and settlers were driven out, fleeing to the silver mining town at Alamos. Eventually, Juan Calixto raised an army of 6,000 men, composed of Pima, Yaqui and Mayo Indians. With this large force, Calixto gained control of all the towns along the Mayo and Yaqui Rivers. 

However, in August 1740, Captain Agustín de Vildósola defeated the insurgents. The rebellion, however, had cost the lives of a thousand Spaniards and more than 5,000 Indians. After the 1740 rebellion, the new Governor of Sonora and Sinaloa began a program of secularization by posting garrisons in the Yaqui Valley and encouraging Spanish residents to return to the area of rebellion. The Viceroy ordered the partition of Yaqui land in a “prudent manner.” The Yaquis had obtained a reputation for being courageous warriors during the rebellion of 1740 and the Spanish handled them quite gingerly thereafter. As a result, the government acquisition of Yaqui lands did not begin began until 1768.

Pima Rebellion of 1751-1752

The Pima Indians have lived for many centuries in scattered locations that are now located in the western two-thirds of southern Arizona and northern Sonora. While the Pimas Altos (Upper Pima Indians) lived in the north, their linguistic brethren, the Pima Bajo (Lower Pima) lived farther south in the vicinity of Ures, Sahuaripa and San Ignacio, all of which are located in the far north of Sonora, a short distance from the U.S. border. During the 1740s, the Pima Indians had begun to feel agitated by the intrusion of the Spaniards onto their territory.

In November 1751, under the leadership of a Pima leader, Captain-General Luís Oacpicagigua, the Pima rose in revolt. Within a few days more than a hundred settlers, miners, and ranchers were killed. Churches were burned and two priests were also killed. However, on January 4, 1752, approximately 2,000 northern Pimans attacked less than one hundred Spaniards, only to be repulsed with a loss of forty-three dead. The Pima Revolt lasted only four months, ending with the surrender of Luís Oacpicagigua, who offered himself in sacrifice and atonement for his whole people, endeavoring to spare them the consequences of their uprising. He died in 1755 while imprisoned.

The Apache Indians

The word “Apache” comes from the Yuma word for “fighting-men.” It also comes from a Zuni word meaning “enemy.” Historian Cynthia Radding, the author of The Colonial Pact and Changing Ethnic Frontiers in Highland Sonora, 1740-1840, refers to the Apaches as “diverse bands” of hunter-gatherers “related linguistically to the Athapaskan speakers of Alaska and western Canada.” The Apaches were composed of six regional groups:

1. The Western Apaches (Coyotero) of eastern Arizona

2. The Chiricahua of southwestern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, Chihuahua and Sonora

3. The Mescalero of southern New Mexico

4. The Jicarilla of Colorado, northern New Mexico and northwestern Texas

5. The Lipan Apache of New Mexico and Texas

6. The Kiowa Apache of Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas.

The Organization of the Apaches

The first Apache raids on Sonora appear to have taken place during the early part of the late Seventeenth Century. They sustained themselves with the bow and arrow and stole livestock, leaving many areas of Sonora and Chihuahua in ruins. However, the Apaches did not have a central leadership and bands of Apaches in specific areas operated according to their own geographic needs.

According to the historian Robert H. Jackson, “The Apache lived and waged war in small bands, having no permanent large-scale political organization. Bands might cooperate on specific raids, but only on a short-term basis. Most raiding parties numbered between ten and forty warriors.” In addition,” the one major advantage the Apache possessed was his skillful exploitation of the element of surprise in raids on livestock herds and in the murder of people on the road.” The Apaches were able to escape retaliation by fleeing to the nearest mountains.

The Apache depredations continued into the Eighteenth Century and by the 1750s, the fiercest of all Apache tribes, the Chiricahua, began hunting and raiding along the mountainous frontier regions of both Sonora and Chihuahua. The situation prompted Captain Juan Mateo Mange in 1737 to report that “many mines have been destroyed, 15 large estancias along the frontier have 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.” Between 1751 and 1760, the Sonorans mounted several punitive campaigns against the Chiricahua, sometimes with success.

The Presidio System

The pressure of constant warfare waged against these nomads led the Spanish military to adopt a policy of maintaining armed garrisons of paid soldiers (presidios) in the problem areas. To counter the early Apache thrusts into Sonora, presidios were established at Janos (1685) in Northwestern Chihuahua and at Fronteras (1690) in northern Opata country (now in the northeastern corner of Sonora).

By 1760, Spain boasted a total of twenty-three presidios in their frontier regions. But the Apaches, responding to these garrisons, developed “important adaptations in their mode of subsistence, warfare, and social organization.” They became highly skilled horsemen whose mobility helped them elude presidio troops. In fact, Professor Robert Salmon, the author of Indian Revolts in Northern New Spain: A Synthesis of Resistance (1680-1786), writes that the continuing Indian attacks eventually “broke the chain of ineffective presidios established to control them.”

The Apaches as a Major Threat

As the end of the Eighteenth Century approached, the Apaches represented a major threat to the continued Spanish occupation of Sonora and Chihuahua. And, as Professor Salmon concludes, “Indian warriors exacted high tolls in commerce, livestock, and lives.” The damage caused by Apache raids was calculated in hundreds of thousands of pesos, and many ranches, farms and mining centers throughout Chihuahua had to be abandoned.

Professor Griffen mentions that the Apache raiders in Chihuahua “displaced or assimilated other groups of hunter-gatherers,” and as a result, Ms. Radding observes, the Spaniards, Pimas, and Opatas found it necessary to form “an uneasy, but necessary, alliance against the Apaches.” At this time, the Opata Indians controlled the major river valleys of Central Sonora. 

Seri Offensives (1757-1766)

At the time of contact, the Seri Indians lived along the arid central coast of Sonora and shared boundaries with the Yaqui on the south and the Pima and Pápago on the east and north. The first known battle between the Seris and the Spaniards took place in 1662. A century later, on November 3, 1757, a war party of Seris and rebel northern Pimas struck the settlement of San Lorenzo (Sonora), killing thirty-two persons. This brazen affront called for military reprisal, and the Spaniards collected troops to chase the offenders back to the coastal area.

In 1760, Captain Juan Bautista de Anza took over command of the Tubac Presidio in Southern Arizona and embarked into Seri country near the Gulf of California. In 1761, presidios were denuded of troops in order to supply personnel and materials for the offensive. A force of 184 Spanish soldiers, 217 allied Indians and twenty citizens went on the offensive against the Seris. They succeeded in slaying forty-nine Seris and capturing sixty-three, while recovering 322 horses.

The Jesuits are Banished (1767)

In 1767 King Carlos III, for political reasons, abruptly banished the Jesuits from all his realms. Hundreds of mission establishments, schools and colleges had to be turned over to other missionary orders or converted to other uses. The Franciscans who took over the missionary effort in Sonora and Chihuahua inherited all the woes that had frustrated the Jesuits: restless neophytes, Apache hostility, disease, encroaching settlers, and lack of government support. 

The Sonora Campaign (1767-1771)

The Sonora Expedition of 1767 ‒ led by Colonel Domingo Elizondo ‒ was the result of demands by settlers in Sonora who had for decades suffered raids by warring ranchería groups of that province. Pacification of rebel Indian warriors of the coastal region was the main objective of the expedition that was comprised of an extraordinary 1,100 men. This expedition represented the greatest military effort yet seen in this Spanish frontier province. 

During 1768, Colonel Elizondo’s forces split up in an attempt to drive the Seri Indians into one area where a decisive battle could be fought. This mission failed to achieve its objective. The Indians, now well-trained in the art of hit-and-run and ambush style warfare, avoided direct confrontations with large Spanish armies. In 1771, after thirty-eight months of fighting, the Central Government in Mexico City put a stop to the Sonora Campaign, which was regarded as both costly and unsuccessful.

The Peace Establishments (1786)

In 1786, the Viceroy of Nueva España, Bernardo de Gálvez, instituted a series of reforms for the pacification of the frontier. Most notably, Gálvez called for the formation of “Peace Establishments” (Establecimientos de Paz) for Apaches willing to settle down and become peaceful. Oscar J. Martínez, the author of Troublesome Border, described Spain’s new policy of “pacification by dependency” toward the indigenous peoples. “Henceforth,” writes Mr. Martínez, “Spaniards would endeavor to make treaties with individual bands, persuade them to settle near military stations where they would receive food rations, give them low-quality weapons for hunting, encourage trade, and use ‘divide and conquer’ tactics where appropriate.”

Participation in the Peace Establishments

Soon, several Apache bands were induced to forgo their raiding and warfare habits in exchange for farmlands, food, clothing, agricultural implements and obsolete hunting arms. Mr. Martínez concludes: “The Spaniards hoped that these measures would result in the establishment of a dependency relationship, which is precisely what materialized, and for nearly twenty-five years peaceful relations came to exist between the two groups.” The Gálvez Peace Policy eventually became the model on which the modern U.S. Indian reservation system was formed.

The new system taught the Apaches sedentary ways of living and settling within the Spanish Empire. By 1793, there were eight Apache establecimientos (six under presidio protection), in which 2,000 Apaches became acquainted with farming, agriculture and Christianity. Eventually, an estimated 3,000 Apaches were moved to the Spanish presidios. It is not clear what proportion of the Apaches were actually pacified, but some bands of Apaches continued their raids on settlements. However, the number of those incidents decreased significantly through much of the region.

William B. Griffen, in “Utmost Faith,” discusses in detail the Spanish peace reserve system that operated from 1786 to 1821 and kept many of the Apache tribes pacified.  However, Griffen also notes that each Apache band had leaders who were not recognized by other groups.  So, when one Apache group made peace with the Spaniards or Mexicans, that peace did not apply to the members of other bands. As a result, some Apaches continued their raids.

Independence and Statehood (1821-1830)

In 1821, Mexico became an independent country free of Spanish domination. Initially, Mexico was divided into 21 provinces. Among them was the State of Occidente (The State of the West), which was created on January 31, 1824 and was also called the State of Sonora y Sinaloa. The government was initially established with its capital at El Fuerte, Sinaloa. The state consisted of modern Sonora and Sinaloa, and also modern Arizona more or less south of the Gila River (although in much of this area the Yaqui, Pima, Apaches, and other native inhabitants did not recognize the authority of the state).

In 1825, the Occidente constitution decreed that all inhabitants — including indigenous individuals — were state citizens. This was resented by the Yaqui since they now had to pay taxes, which they had been exempt from before. The Yaqui also considered themselves possessed of sovereignty and territorial rights which were threatened by the state’s new constitution. This led to a new outbreak of war between the Mexicans and the Yaquis. As a result of this war the capital of Occidente was moved to Cosala.

On October 18, 1830 the National Congress approved the division of Sonora and Sinaloa into two different states. On March 13, 1831, the Constituent Congress of the State of Sonora was installed in Hermosillo and on December 13 of the same year, the first Political Constitution of the State of Sonora was issued.

Yaqui, Mayo and Opata Rebellions of 1825-1833

After the Mexican Republic was established in 1824, the Yaqui Indians became citizens of the new nation. During this time, there appeared a new Yaqui leader, Juan de la Cruz Banderas, whose mission was to establish a large Indian military confederation. Once again, the Mayo Indians joined their Yaqui neighbors in opposing the central authorities. With a following of 2,000 warriors, Banderas carried out several raids. But eventually, Banderas made an arrangement with the Government of Sonora. In exchange for his “surrender,” Banderas was made the Captain-General of the Yaqui Militia.

By early 1832, Banderas had started new operations and, overcoming the chronic inability of Sonoran native tribes to work together, formed an alliance with both the Mayos and the Opatas. Together, the native tribes were able to field an army of almost 2,500 warriors, staging repeated raids against haciendas, mines and towns in Sonora. However, the Mexican army continued to meet the indigenous forces in battle, gradually reducing their numbers. Finally, in December 1832, volunteers tracked down and captured Banderas. The captive was turned over to the authorities and put on trial. A month later, in January 1833, Banderas was executed, along with eleven other Yaqui, Mayo and Opata leaders who had helped foment rebellion in Sonora.

The Apaches Return to War (1831)

The Spanish officials had continued to supply food and supplies to the Apaches in exchange for peace, but the relationship deteriorated when the Mexican independence movement ousted the Spanish government. With independence, neither the national nor the local treasuries could afford the cost of maintaining the Apaches in their reservations or continuing the colonial peace pacts.

In 1831, the Apaches abandoned the presidios and reverted to their former practice of raiding settlements in Sonora and Chihuahua. According to Ignacio Zuñiga, commander of the northern presidios of Sonora, between 1820 and 1835, the Apaches killed over five thousand people, destroyed one hundred ranchos, hacienda, mining camps and other settlements, and forced between three and four thousand Mexican settlers to flee from the northern frontier.

A Policy of Extermination

The Mexican government responded to the Apache reprisals by beginning a policy of extermination. In 1835 and 1837 respectively, the states of Sonora and Chihuahua hired bounty hunters to kill Apaches, but this only served to intensify the Indians’ hatred for the Mexicans.  By 1848 their attacks became so treacherous that the Mexicans abandoned Tubac and temporarily lost Fronteras in northeast Sonora.

Confrontations with Comanches in Sonora, Chihuahua and Durango (1834-1853)

In 1834, Mexico signed its third peace treaty with the Comanches of Texas. However, almost immediately Mexico violated the peace treaty and the Comanches resumed their raids in Texas and Chihuahua. In the following year, Sonora, Chihuahua and Durango reestablished bounties for Comanche scalps. Between 1848 and 1853, Mexico filed 366 separate claims for Comanche and Apache raids originating from north of the American border. 

A government report from 1849 claimed that twenty-six mines, thirty haciendas, and ninety ranches in Sonora had been abandoned or depopulated between 1831 and 1849 because of Apache depredations. In 1852, the Comanches made daring raids into Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora, and Durango and even Tepic in Jalisco, some 700 miles south of the United States-Mexican border.

Apache Depredations in Sonora (1843-1852)

In 1836, the Chokonen-Chiricahua leader, Cochise, who lived in northern Sonora, took part in the signing of a peace treaty at Arizpe, Sonora. That peace held for a few years, but eventually the attacks resumed and in 1843 and 1844, several Apache attacks took place. From 1847 into the 1850s, Sonora was laid to waste by the Chiricahuas. A map at the following website shows the zones of interethnic conflict for the various Apache tribes in northern Mexico around 1844:

https://clas.berkeley.edu/research/us-mexican-war-forgotten-foes

The Yaquis Form Alliances (1838-1868)

From 1838 to 1868, the Yaquis formed alliances with anyone who promised them land and autonomy. They would align themselves with the Centralists or Conservatives as long as those groups protected their lands from being encroached upon. These alliances helped create and perpetuate the Northern Mexican system of caudillismo.

Manuel María Gándara de Gortara, a wealthy landowner in Ures district of Sonora, obtained political power in Sonora by staging a coup in 1838 and won the military support of the Yaquis, although in 1839, he personally directed the campaign against an uprising of the Opata Indians. However, when General José Urrea came to power in 1841, he oversaw the division of Yaqui lands from communal plots into private plots. This was exactly what the Yaquis did not want. Agents working for Gándara fanned fears that Urrea would sell the Yaqui people into slavery and sell their land to outsiders. When Gándara regained power in Sonora he granted amnesty to all Yaqui rebels and restored some of their political power by appointing Yaquis he trusted to local government posts.

The 1859-1860 Yaqui-Opata Rebellion

In 1859, the Sonora government had to quell another rebellion of the Yaquis and the Opatas.  On July 23, 1860, General Morales opened a final campaign against the Yaquis with 400 soldiers, which were joined in September by reinforcements from the Governor. On October 22, 1860, General Morales defeated a force of 1,200 Indians at Hermosillo, liberating the city. But, after this defeat, the Yaquis broke up into small bands and spread out to areas outside of Yaqui territory. But by the middle of 1861, some of the Yaquis were asking for both peace and amnesty. The government then stationed surveillance forces to watch over both the Yaquis and the Mayos. 

Exploiting the Agricultural Potential of Yaqui Lands

Governor Ignacio Pesqueira, who served in Sonora for most of the period from 1857 to 1876, attempted to promote colonization of the Yaqui and Mayo rivers as a method of assimilating them into Mexican society. Historian Professor Hu-DeHart writes that Pesquera saw this colonization as a way to “exploit the agricultural potential of the land” and to “help assimilate the intransigent rebels as good Mexicans and good citizens into the population at large.”  

But the attempted colonization of their territories led both the Yaquis and Mayos to ally themselves with every anti-governmental movement to oppose Pesquera. When the French invaded Sonora in March 1865, the Yaquis, Mayos and Opatas allied themselves with the French Imperial forces. But their alliance ended in 1867 with the withdrawal of the French.

Governor Pesqueira Offensives

Governor Ignacio Pesqueira of Sonora drew up a list of preventative measures to be used against the Yaquis, Opatas and their allies. These orders called for the execution of rebel leaders. In addition, hacienda owners were required to make up lists of all employees, including a notation for those who were suspected of taking part in rebellious activity against the civil government. These measures were ineffective in dealing with the growing unrest among the Yaqui and Opatas.

In 1867 Governor Pesqueira of Sonora organized two military expeditions against the Yaquis under the command of General Jesus Garcia Morales. The expeditions marched on Guaymas and Cócorit, both of which lay in the heart of Yaqui territory. These expeditions met at Medano on the Gulf Coast near the Jesuit-founded Yaqui town of Potam. The two expeditions, totaling about 900 men, did not meet with any organized resistance. Instead, small parties of Yaquis resisted their advance. By the end of the year, the Mexican forces had killed many Yaquis. The troops confiscated much livestock, destroyed food supplies, and shot most of the prisoners captured. 

Yaqui Insurgencies in Sonora (1868-1875)

From 1868 to 1875, the Yaquis periodically attacked Mexican garrisons in their territory. In March 1868, six hundred Yaquis arrived near the town of Bacum in the eastern Yaqui country to ask the local field commander for peace terms. However, the Mexican officer, Colonel Bustamante, arrested the whole group, including women and children. When the Yaquis gave up forty-eight weapons, Bustamante released 150 people but continued to hold the other 450 people. Taking his captives to a Yaqui church in Bacum as prisoners of war, he was able to identify ten of the captives as leaders. All ten of these men were shot without a trial.

Four hundred and forty people were left languishing in the church overnight, with Bustamante’s artillery trained on the church door to discourage an escape attempt. However, during the night a fire was started in the church. The situation inside the church turned to chaos and confusion, as some captives desperately tried to break down the door. As the Yaquis fled the church, several salvos fired from the field pieces killed up to 120 people.

In 1875, the Mexican government suspected that a Yaqui insurrection was brewing. In an attempt to pacify the Yaquis, Governor Jose J. Pesqueira ordered a new campaign, sending five hundred troops from the west into the Yaqui country. A force of 1,500 Yaquis met the Mexican troops at Pitahaya. In the subsequent battle, the Yaquis are believed to have lost some sixty men.

The Cajeme Rebellion (1876-1887)

During the reign of Porfirio Díaz, the ongoing struggle for autonomy and land rights dominated Yaqui-Mexican relations. An extraordinary leader named José Maria Leyba Peres, or Cajemé soon took center stage in the Yaquis’ struggle for autonomy and galvanized a new generation of Yaquis and Mayos, leading his forces in attacks on haciendas, ranches and stations of the Sonora Railroad in the Guaymas and Alamos districts.

Cajeme, whose name meant “He who does not drink,” had learned Spanish and served in the Mexican army. Although Cajeme’s parents were Yaqui Indians, he had become very mexicanized. Cajeme’s military service with the Mexican army was so exemplary that he was given the post of Alcalde Mayor of the Yaqui River area. Soon after receiving this promotion, however, Cajeme announced his intention to withdraw recognition of the Mexican Government if they did not grant the Yaquis self-government. Cajeme galvanized a new generation of Yaquis and Mayos and led his forces against selected towns in Yaqui Country. 

In 1876, Cajemé established a small independent Yaqui republic in Sonora. From Bácum, Cajemé had declared that the eight Indian villages and their surrounding lands would henceforth be independent from Mexico, thus creating a self-governing indigenous political entity. By this time, there were only about 4,000 undefeated Yaqui, and they attempted to defend their county by building the fortification called El Añil (The Indigo). El Añil was located near the village of Vícam, within the municipio of Guaymas.

According to the historian, Jeffrey M. Schulze, from about 1875 to 1887, Cajeme led between 4,000 and 5,000 Yaqui soldiers in “a bitter and violent bid for independence that displace and nearly destroyed the tribe.” As a result, the Yaquis became, according to anthropologist Edward Spicer, “the most widely scattered people in North America,” with some of them fleeing to Arizona and California, while others were exiled to the Yucatán Peninsula.

In 1885, 1,400 federal troops arrived in Sonora to help the Sonoran government put down the insurrection. Together with 800 state troops, the federal forces were organized into an expedition, with the intention of meeting the Yaquis in battle. Putting together a fighting force of 4,000 Yaquis, along with thousands of Yaqui civilians, the Yaqui leader Cajeme prepared to resist. On May 12, after a four-day siege, Mexican troops under General Angel Martinez, attacked Buatachive. In a three-hour battle, the Mexican forces killed 200 Yaqui soldiers, while capturing hundreds of women and children. Cajeme and a couple thousand Yaquis managed to escape the siege.

After this staggering blow, Cajeme divided his forces into small bands of armed men and engaged government troops in small skirmishes. Eventually, however, Mexican forces were able to occupy all of the Yaqui territory, and on April 12, 1887, Cajeme was apprehended near Guaymas and taken to Cócorit where he was to be executed before a firing squad. After being interviewed and photographed by Ramon Corral, he was taken by steamboat to Medano but was shot while trying to escape from the soldiers.

Yaquis Flee to Arizona

Even with the death of Cajeme, the Yaquis continued their resistance, mainly in the Guaymas Valley. During this time, some Yaquis were able to slip across the border into Arizona to work in mines and purchase guns and ammunition. The Mexican border guards were unable to stop the steady supply of arms and provisions coming across the border from Arizona. Eventually, Mexico’s Secretary of War ordered the recruitment of Opatas and Pimas to hunt down the Yaqui guerillas.

Mexican Sovereignty over Indian Lands

Dr. Hatfield, in studying the struggle over Indian lands, wrote, “Rich Yaqui and Mayo valley lands possessed a soil and climate capable of growing almost any crop. Therefore, it was considered in the best national interest to open these lands to commercial development and foreign investors.”

From 1879 to 1911, General Luis E. Torres either served as Governor of Sonora or had a close affiliate serving in that position. As a result, he and his partners held undisputed power in the state for decades. In 1894-95, Torres instituted a secret police system and carried out a meticulous survey of the entire Sierra de Bacatete, noting locations of wells supplying fresh water as well as all possible entrances and exits to the region. Renegade bands of Yaquis, familiar with the terrain of their own territory, were able to avoid capture by the government forces. During the campaign of 1895-97, captured rebels were deported to southern Mexico to be drafted into the army. 

The Ortiz Peace Agreement (1897)

In 1897, General Torres initiated negotiations with the Yaqui leader Tetabiate, offering the Yaquis repatriation into their homeland. After a number of months of correspondence between the guerilla leader and a colonel in one of the regiments, a place was set for a peace agreement to be signed. On May 15, 1897, Sonora state officials and the Tetabiate signed the Peace of Ortiz. The Yaqui leader, Juan Maldonado, with 390 Yaquis, consisting of 74 families, arrived from the mountains for the signing of the peace treaty. 

Renewal of Hostilities (1899)

The peace agreement provided for repentant rebels to become colonists in the Rio Yaqui Valley. However, the Yaquis had thought that the agreement guaranteed them their long sought independence and autonomy. They believed that all federal soldiers would be evacuated from the Yaqui Valley.  When both sides realized that there had been miscommunication relating to the Peace of Ortiz, new fighting broke out in 1899 and 1900.

To defend themselves against the new government offensive, the Yaquis amassed a large force at their mountain redoubt of Mazocoba. To crush this latest rebellion led by Tetabiate, the government sent out its largest contingent to date with almost 5,000 federal and state troops. Laws restricting the sale of firearms were reenacted and captured rebels were deported from the state.

The Battle of Mazocoba (1900)

On January 18, 1900, three columns of his Government forces encountered a party of Yaquis at Mazocoba in the heart of the Bacatete Mountains. The Yaquis, mostly on foot, were pursued into a box canyon in a rugged portion of the mountains. After a daylong battle, the Yaquis ceased fighting. The soldiers had killed 397 men, women, and some children, while many others had committed suicide by jumping off the cliffs. Roughly a thousand women and children were taken prisoner at the Battle of Mazocoba.

By the end of 1900, there were only an estimated 300 rebels holding out in the Bacatete Mountains. Six months later, Tetabiate was betrayed and murdered by one of his lieutenants and the Secretary of War declared that the Yaqui Campaign had formally ended in August 1901.

Indigenous Groups Past and Present

In the 1895 census, Sonora was reported to have 27,790 persons aged 5 years or more who spoke an indigenous language, compared to a Spanish-speaking population of 162,236.  But this figure dropped steadily, in the 1900 census to 25,894 indigenous speakers and in 1910 to 14,554.

Deportation of Yaqui Indians (1902-1910)

Because of the continued defiance of the Yaquis, in April 1902, General Luis Torres wrote to President Porfirio Díaz about a new plan in which the Yaquis who lived within a certain region would be captured and then deported. The plan was accepted and a vigorous campaign against the Yaquis was undertaken by state officials soon after.

Colonel Emilio Kosterlitzky was placed in charge of Federal Rural Police in the state with orders to round up all Yaquis and deport them southward. Between 1902 -1908, between eight and possibly as many as fifteen thousand of the estimated population of thirty thousand Yaquis were deported.

The years 1904 through 1907 witnessed an intensification of guerilla activities and corresponding government persecution. The state government issued passports to Yaquis and those not having them were arrested and jailed. The Sonoran Governor Rafael Izábel was so intent on pacifying the Yaquis that he conducted his own arrests. These arrests included women, children as well as sympathizers. “When Yaqui rebellion threatened Sonora’s mining interests,” writes Dr. Hatfield, “Governor Rafael Izábel deported Yaquis, considered superior workers by all accounts, to work on Yucatán’s henequen plantations.”

In analyzing the Mexican Government’s policy of deportation, Dr. Hatfield observed that deportation of the Yaquis resulted from “the Yaquis’ determination to keep their lands. Yaqui refusal to submit to government laws conflicted with the Mexican government’s attempts to end all regional hegemony. The regime hoped to take Yaqui lands peacefully, but this the Yaquis prevented.”

The bulk of the Yaquis were sent to work on henequen plantations in the Yucatán and some were sent to work in the sugar cane fields in Oaxaca. Sonoran hacendados protested the persecution and deportation of the Yaquis because without their labor, their crops could not be cultivated or harvested. In the early Nineteenth Century, many Yaqui men immigrated to Arizona in order to escape subjugation and deportation to southern Mexico. Today, some 10,000 Yaqui Indians live in the United States, many of them descended from the refugees of a century ago.

270 Instances of Warfare between 1529 and 1902

Dr. Hatfield, in looking back on the long struggle of the Yaqui against the federal government, writes “A government study published in 1905 cited 270 instances of Yaqui and Mayo warfare between 1529 and 1902, excluding eighty-five years of relative peace between 1740 and 1825.” But from 1825 to 1902, the Yaqui Nation waged war on the government almost continuously.

The Yaquis from 1910 to the 1920s

By 1910, countless Yaquis had removed from their homeland and the Yaquis who remained in Sonora had ceased hostilities for the most part. In 1920, the Mexican government estimated that the 6,000 Yaquis were living in the main tribal towns of Cócorit, Vicam, Turin, Potam and Bacum, and they were being joined by some Yaquis who were returning from exile in the United States.

In September 1920, Governor Berquez of Sonora complained that the Yaquis had “been a thorn in the side of the Sonoran and the Mexican governments for forty-eight years,” but recently, he had received assurances that the Yaquis were “completely pacified and ready to settle down” and return to peaceful agricultural pursuits on their reservation lands. However, the peace was short-lived and new outbreaks took place during the next year.

The 1921 Mexican Census

In the unique 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 275,127,

• 37,914 persons (or 13.8%) claimed to be of pure indigenous background

• 111,089 persons (or 40.4%) classified themselves as being mixed (mezclada)

• 115,151 persons (or 41.9%) claimed to be white (blanca)

In the 1921 census, only 6,765 residents of Sonora admitted to speaking an indigenous language. The most commonly spoken indigenous language was the Mayo language, which 5,941 individuals used. The Yaqui language was spoken by only 562 persons. This meager showing may have been the result of the deportations, but may also indicate that many Yaqui speakers were fearful of admitting their linguistic and cultural identity, for fear of government reprisal. By the time of the 1930 census, 6,024 residents of Sonora claimed to speak indigenous languages, and another 18,873 were bilingual, speaking Spanish and an indigenous language.

The Last Major Battle (1927)

Historians agree that the Yaquis fought their last major battle at Cerro del Gallo (Hill of the Rooster) in 1927. On April 28, 1927, the Los Angeles Times reported that Mexican Federal Troops had captured 415 Yaquis, including 214 women and 175 children. By October of that year, the Yaquis chieftain, Luis Matius, surrendered, after holding out in the Bacatete Mountains for more than a year. By the end of 1927, Mexican garrisons were established in all Yaqui pueblos and villages.

Making Peace

During the 1930s many Yaquis settled down to a peaceful existence in their Sonoran homeland. Although some small outbreaks took place, major hostilities had come to an end and Yaquis worked hard to live in peace with their neighbors and the authorities. In 1934, the Yaquis found a new and important ally in the person of President Lázaro Cárdenas, a mestizo from Jiquilpan, Michoacán.

President Cárdenas opened up negotiations with the Yaquis to ensure that peace would continue. The Los Angeles Times of May 22, 1936 reported that “President Cárdenas, proud of his Indian blood,” had served notice that his government would provide extensive benefits for the Yaquis. These plans included:

• Construction and improvement of irrigation canals in Yaqui territory

• Construction of a dam along the Yaqui River

• Establishment of agricultural and industrial schools at Vicam

• A comprehensive program of cultural uplift for Yaquis

During the next year, President Cárdenas signed a treaty with the Yaquis. This treaty created the Yaqui Zona Indígena, which included approximately half of the territory that the Yaquis had claimed as their traditional homeland. Although the Yaquis lost two of their traditional towns (Cócorit and Bácum), two new towns (Loma de Guamúchil and Loma de Bácum) were established to compensate the tribe for their loss.

2000 Census

During the Twentieth Century, the Yaquis have managed to obtain a form of autonomy within the Mexican nation. In the 2000 Mexican census, Sonora had a total of 55,694 persons who were classified as speakers of indigenous languages five years of age and over. This group represented only 2.85% of the entire population of Sonora. The population of persons speaking the Yaqui language, however, was only 12,467. The number of persons speaking the Mayo language was 25,879, representing almost half of all the indigenous speakers. Several thousand Zapotecos and Mixtecos – migrant laborers from the states of Guerrero and Oaxaca – also resided in the state.

The 2010 Census

In the 2010 census, it was revealed that 60,310 residents of Sonora five years of age and older spoke an indigenous language, representing about 2.5% of the state’s population. About 47,000 of those indigenous speakers belonged to Sonora’s seven primary indigenous groups: the Kickapoo, Tohono O’odham (or Pápago), Seri, Pima, Kickapoo, Guarijío, Yaqui and Mayo. Together, these ethnic groups comprised about 150,000 individuals (some of whom did not speak indigenous languages). In addition, over the last 30 years, ethnic Triqui, Mixtec and Zapotec speakers have migrated to Sonora and now represent indigenous languages that are actually native to other parts of Mexico (primarily Oaxaca). Sonora’s four most commonly spoken languages in 2010 census were:

1. Mayo: 28,063 inhabitants

2. Yaqui: 16,508 inhabitants

3. Náhuatl: 2,004 inhabitants

4. Triqui: 1,843 inhabitants

The indigenous group Cucapá has the smallest amount of speakers: 43. But most of the Sonoran languages – in particular the Mayo, Yaqui, Pima, Cucapá and Pápago – are endangered because the older generation is not passing its language to the younger generation.  Only the Seri and Guarijío languages are not in immediate danger.

Sonora’s Status within the Mexican Republic

In the 2010 census, Sonora – with its 60,310 indigenous speaking inhabitants – ranked Number 17 among the Mexican states and Distrito Federal for its percentage of indigenous speakers. The Mayo language was the 25th most common language in Mexico, with 39,616 indigenous speakers in the entire Republic (primarily in Sonora and Sinaloa). 

The Yaqui language was the 29th most common language in Mexico, with 17,116 individuals speaking that language, the vast majority of them living in Sonora.

Mexicans Considered Indigenous

The 2010 census also included a question that asked people if they considered themselves indigenous, whether or not an indigenous language was spoken. In all, 11.9% of Sonora’s inhabitants three years of age or more were considered indigenous, giving Sonora a 16th place ranking among the Mexican states and Distrito Federal.

The Yaqui Legacy

After five centuries, the Yaqui identity has been successfully preserved but is in danger of cultural extinction. “They are threatened continually by the expansion of the Mexican population, as landless Mexicans invade their territory or intermarry with Yaquis and start to take over some of the lands,” explained Joe Wilder, Director of the University of Arizona’s Southwest Center. “The Yaquis are at once deeply admired by Sonorans and deeply despised,” said Wilder, noting that the Yaqui deer dancer is the official state symbol. To many Americans, the Yaqui Indians represent an enduring legacy of the pre-Hispanic era. Because the mestizaje and assimilation of many Mexican states was so complete and widespread, the Yaqui Indians are seen as a rare vestige of the old Mexico.

Copyright © 2019, by John P. Schmal.

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