The "Yoeme" or
Yaqui are a Native American tribe who originally lived in the valley of the Río Yaqui in the northern
MexicanThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
state of
SonoraSonora is a state in northwestern Mexico with an area of 182,052 square kilometers, making it around the size of Syria. It is surrounded by the states of Baja California and the Sea of Cortez to the west, Chihuahua to the east, Sinaloa to the south, and Arizona to the north.The capital is...
and throughout the
Sonoran DesertThe Sonoran Desert is a North American desert which straddles part of the United States-Mexico border and covers large parts of the U.S. states of Arizona and California and the northwest Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur...
region into the southwestern
U.S.The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
state of
ArizonaThe State of Arizona is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. The capital and largest city is Phoenix. The second largest city is Tucson, followed in size by the four Phoenix metropolitan area cities of Mesa, Glendale, Chandler, and Scottsdale.Arizona was the 48th and...
. The Yaqui call themselves "Yoeme," the Yaqui word for person ("yoemem" or "yo'emem" meaning "people"). The Yaqui call their homeland "Hiakim," from which some say the name "Yaqui" is derived. They may also describe themselves as Haiki Nation or Pascua Hiaki, meaning "The Easter People". Many folk etymologies exist as to how the "Yoeme" came to be known as the "Yaqui".
Lifestyle of the Yaqui
In the past, the Yaqui subsisted on agriculture, growing
cornMaize , is a herbaceous plant domesticated in Mesoamerica and subsequently spread throughout the American continents...
, beans, and squash (like many of the natives of the region). The Yaqui who lived in the Río Yaqui region and in coastal areas of
SonoraSonora is a state in northwestern Mexico with an area of 182,052 square kilometers, making it around the size of Syria. It is surrounded by the states of Baja California and the Sea of Cortez to the west, Chihuahua to the east, Sinaloa to the south, and Arizona to the north.The capital is...
and
SinaloaSinaloa is one of the 31 states of Mexico, located in the northwestern part of the country. The state is bordered to the north by Sonora and Chihuahua; to the south, by Nayarit; to the east by Durango, and to the west, across the Gulf of California, Baja California Sur. The state extends...
fished as well as farmed. The Yaqui also made
cottonCotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant, a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa. The fiber most often is spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft,...
products. The Yaqui have always been skillful
warriorAccording to the Random House Dictionary, the term warrior has two meanings. The first literal use refers to "a person engaged or experienced in warfare." The second figurative use refers to "a person who shows or has shown great vigor, courage, or aggressiveness, as in politics or athletics."...
s. The Yaqui Indians have been known to be quite tall in stature.
Yaqui cosmology and religion
The Yaqui conception of the world is considerably different from that of their Mexican and United States neighbors. For example, the world (in Yaqui,
anía) is composed of four separate worlds: the animal world, the world of people, the world of flowers, and the world of death. Much Yaqui ritual is centered upon perfecting these worlds and eliminating the harm that has been done to them, especially by people. There is a belief current among many Yaquis that the existence of the world depends on the yearly performance of the Lenten and Easter rituals.
The Yaqui religion (which is a syncretic religion of old Yaqui beliefs and practices and the teachings of Jesuit and later
FranciscanThe term Franciscan is commonly used to refer to members of Catholic religious orders, also known as the Orders of Friars Minor, that follow a body of regulations known as "The rule of St. Francis", or a member of one of these orders. As well as Roman Catholic there are also small Old Catholic and...
missionaries) relies upon song, music, prayer, and dancing, all performed by designated members of the community. There are also other, Roman Catholic, practices that are woven into the old ways.
The Yaqui deer song (
maso bwikam) accompanies the deer dance which is performed by a pascola [from the Spanish 'pascua', Easter] dancer (also known as a
deer dancer). Pascolas will perform at religio-social functions many times of the year, but especially during
LentLent, in Christian tradition, is the period of the liturgical year leading up to Easter.The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial — for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus,...
and
EasterEaster is the most important annual religious feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to Christian scripture, Jesus was resurrected from the dead on the third day from his crucifixion...
.
The Yaqui deer song ritual is in many ways similar to the deer song rituals of neighboring Uto-Aztecan people such as the
MayoThe Mayo are a Mexican indigenous people living in the states of Sonora and Sinaloa, originally living near the Mayo River in Sonora. In their own language they call themselves Yoreme....
. However, the Yaqui deer song is much more central to the
cultus of its people and is greatly tied in to Roman Catholic beliefs and practices.
Flowers are very important in the Yaqui culture. According to Yaqui teachings, flowers sprang up from the drops of blood that were shed at the
CrucifixionCrucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...
. Flowers are viewed as the manifestation of souls, to the point that occasionally Yaqui men may greet a close male friend with the phrase "Haisa sewa?" ("How is the flower?)
History of the Yaqui
The Yaqui were never conquered militarily by the
SpanishSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
, defeating successive expeditions of
conquistadorConquistador is the term widely used to refer to the Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th through the 17th centuries following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
es in battle. However, they were successfully
converted to ChristianityThe historical phenomenon of Christianization, the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once, also includes the practice of converting native pagan practices and culture, pagan religious imagery, pagan sites and the pagan calendar to Christian uses, due...
by the
JesuitThe Society of Jesus is a Catholic religious order of clerks regular whose members are called Jesuits.Jesuits are the largest male religious order in the Catholic Church, with 18,815 members—13,305 priests, 2,295 scholastic students, 1,758 brothers and 827 novices—as of January 2008, although the...
s, who convinced them to settle into eight towns: Pótam, Vícam, Tórim,
BácumBácum is a small city and municipality in the south of the Mexican state of Sonora at .-Area and population:The area of the municipality is 1,409.7 km² and the population was 21,322 in 2005, of whom 3,600 resided in the municipal seat...
,
CócoritCócorit is a town located in the municipality of Cajeme in the southern part of the Mexican state of Sonora. Cajeme is located in the Yaqui Valley. The comisario municipal is Ing. Arturo Soto Valenzuela...
, Huirivis,
BelemBelem can refer to:*The Belem , a three-masted barque from France*Belem Vitor, Portuguese plastic artist.Belém is the Portuguese word for Bethlehem...
, and Rahum.
For many years, the Yaqui lived peacefully in a relationship with the Jesuit missionaries. This resulted in considerable mutual advantage: the Yaqui were able to develop a very productive economy, and the missionaries were able to employ the wealth created to extend their missionary activities further north. In the 1730s the Spanish colonial government began to alter this relationship, and eventually ordered all Jesuits out of Sonora. This created considerable unrest amongst the Yaqui and led to several rebellions. Further, the Franciscan priests never arrived to be their religious leaders, leaving the Yaqui with no western religious ties.
Yaqui leader Juan Banderas (executed 1833) wished to unite the
MayoThe Mayo are a Mexican indigenous people living in the states of Sonora and Sinaloa, originally living near the Mayo River in Sonora. In their own language they call themselves Yoreme....
, Opata, and
PimaThe Pima are a group of American Indians living in an area consisting of what is now central and southern Arizona and Sonora . The long name, "Akimel O'odham", means "river people". They are closely related to the Tohono O'odham , and the Hia C-ed O'odham...
tribes, together with the Yaqui, to form an alliance separate from Mexico in the 1820s, but the effort failed and the Yaqui remained within the scope of Mexican legal authority.
The nation suffered a succession of brutalities by the Mexican authorities, including a notable massacre in 1868 where 150 Yaqui were burned to death by the army inside a church.
Another prominent (and failed) effort to win independence was led by the Yaqui leader
CajeméCajemé / Kahe'eme , born José Maria Bonifacio Leyva Peres was a Yaqui leader who lived in the Mexican state of Sonora from 1835 to 1887....
. Following this war, the Yaqui were subjected to further brutality under the regime of
Porfirio DíazJosé de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori was the President of Mexico from 1876 to 1880 and from 1884 to 1911, and one of the most controversial figures of the country...
, who implemented a policy of ethnic transfer, in order to remove the Yaqui from Sonora so that he could encourage immigration from Europe and the United States. The government transferred tens of thousands of Yaqui from Sonora to the
YucatánYucatán is one of the 31 states of Mexico, located on the north of the Yucatán Peninsula. The Yucatan peninsula includes three states: Yucatán, Campeche, and Quintana Roo; all three modern states were formerly part of the larger historic state of Yucatán in the 19th century. The state capital of...
peninsula, where they were sold as slaves and worked on plantations; many of these slaves died from the brutal working conditions. Many Yaqui fled to the United States to escape this persecution. Today, the Mexican municipality of
CajemeCajeme is one of the municipalities of the Northwestern state of Sonora, Mexico. Its capital is Ciudad Obregón. It is named after Cajemé, a Yaqui leader...
is named after the fallen Yaqui leader.
Yaquis in the United States
On January 8th, 1918—
U.S. 10th Cavalry RegimentThe 10th Cavalry Regiment is a unit of the United States Army. Formed as a segregated African-American unit, the 10th Cavalry was one of the original "Buffalo Soldier" regiments and served in combat during the Indian Wars of the western United States and the Spanish-American War...
involved in firefight with
YaquiThe "Yoeme" or Yaqui are a Native American tribe who originally lived in the valley of the Río Yaqui in the northern Mexican state of Sonora and throughout the Sonoran Desert region into the southwestern U.S. state of Arizona. The Yaqui call themselves "Yoeme," the Yaqui word for person...
Indians just west of
Nogales, ArizonaNogales is a city in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States. The population was 20,878 at the 2000 census. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 20,833. The city is the county seat of Santa Cruz County....
. E Troop intercepted a group of American Yaquis on their way to render aid to Yaquis of Sonora, who were in the midst of long running war with the Mexicans.
In 1964, Yaquis received 202 acres (817,000 m²) of land from the U.S. Federal Government near
Tucson, ArizonaTucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States, located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. As of July 1, 2006, a Census Bureau estimate puts the city's population at 541,811, with a metropolitan area population at...
. Formal recognition of the
Pascua Yaqui TribeThe Pascua Yaqui Tribe is a tribe of Native Americans, given recognition by the United States government on September 18, 1978.Most U.S. members of the tribe live in southern Arizona.The Yaquis were well accustomed to the many parts of North America, descended from the ancient Uto-Azteca people of...
by the U. S. came on September 18, 1978.
Yaquis have dwelt in the area of the southwestern United States since the incursions by Spanish missionaries and soldiers in the 1700s; Yaqui oral tradition and history emphatically state that there were small Yaqui settlements centuries before the arrival of the Europeans. The town of Tubac,
ArizonaThe State of Arizona is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. The capital and largest city is Phoenix. The second largest city is Tucson, followed in size by the four Phoenix metropolitan area cities of Mesa, Glendale, Chandler, and Scottsdale.Arizona was the 48th and...
, had Yaquis in its Spanish garrison.
Several communities of Yaqui have existed in Arizona since the 1800s: Pascua Pueblo is in the northwestern part of Tucson and Hu'upa was to the south (and has since been absorbed into the Valencia and Freeway neighborhood of Tucson);
MaranaMaraña is a small village in Spain in the province of León, in the Picos de Europa, close to Asturias.The major festival is August 15, the Festival of Our Lady of Riosol-External links:*Location of Maraña...
has had continuous settlements of Yaqui.
In the late 1960s, several Yaqui, among them Anselmo Valencia and Fernando Escalante, started development of a tract of land about 8 km to the west of the old Hu'upa site, calling it New Pascua or, in Spanish, Pascua Nuevo. This settlement has a population (estimated in 2006) of about 4,000 and is the center of administration for the Tribe. Most of the middle-age population of New Pascua use English, Spanish, and a moderate amount of
YaquiYaqui , or Yoeme, is a Native American language of the Uto-Aztecan family. It is spoken by about 15,000 people, mostly of the border Yaqui tribe, in the region around the Mexican state of Sonora, and Arizona in the United States....
. Many older people also speak the Yaqui language fluently, with a growing number of youth learning the Yaqui language in addition.
Many Yaquis also moved further north to
Tempe, ArizonaTempe is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, USA, with a 2007 population of 174,091. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in the East Valley section of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area; it is bordered by Phoenix and Guadalupe on the west, Scottsdale on the north,...
, and settled in a neighborhood named after
Our Lady of GuadalupeOur Lady of Guadalupe is a celebrated 16th-century icon of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ. The image, also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe represents a famous Marian apparition. According to the traditional account, the image appeared miraculously on the front of a simple peasant's cloak...
. The town incorporated in 1979 as
Guadalupe, ArizonaGuadalupe is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the town is 5,258. The town is nestled between Phoenix and Tempe. Since its founding, it has been known as a center of Yaqui culture and it is home to many religious festivals...
. Today, more than 44 percent of the town's ethnic makeup is still
Native AmericanThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples...
, many of them trilingual in Yaqui, English and Spanish languages.
There is also a small Yaqui neighborhood known as Penjamo in South Scottsdale, Arizona.
In all, there are (2008) 11,324 voting members of the tribe.
Famous Yaquis
- Don Juan Matus
Don Juan Matus is a major character in the series of books on Native shamanism by Carlos Castaneda. He is described as a Yaqui Indian to whom Castaneda was introduced somewhere around the U.S.-Mexico border beginning in the early 1960s...
: Sorcerer from Sonora, Mexico (featured in books by Carlos CastanedaCarlos Castaneda was a Peruvian-born American author. Starting with The Teachings of Don Juan in 1968, Castaneda wrote a series of books that describe his purported training in traditional Mesoamerican shamanism. His 12 books have sold more than 8 million copies in 17 languages...
and possibly fictional)
- Maria Félix
María Félix was a Mexican actress, one of the icons of the golden era of the Cinema of Mexico. She was commonly known, particularly in her later years, by the honorific La Doña.-Biography:...
: Yaqui father
- Ritchie Valens
Richard Steven "Ritchie" Valenzuela , better known by the stage name Ritchie Valens, was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist....
: A Mexican/American of Yaqui and Spanish descent
- Alma Grande, comic book hero during 1960's
- Count Salaz: Bay area Entertainer. "The Sonoma County Robert Downey"
- Rod Coronado
Rodney Adam Coronado is a Native American eco-anarchist and animal rights activist. He is an advocate and former activist for the Animal Liberation Front and a spokesperson for the Earth Liberation Front...
: Eco-anarchist, and animal rights activist.
- Raul (Roy) Perez Benavidez
Raul Perez Benavidez was a member of the highly classified Studies and Observations Group of the United States Army. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in eastern Cambodia on May 2, 1968....
(August 5, 1935–November 29, 1998) was a member of the highly-classified Studies and Observations Group. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in eastern Cambodia (although the citation stated that they occurred "west of Loc Ninh, Republic of Vietnam" on May 2, 1968).
- Hector O. Valencia: A Native American flute player in Tucson AZ, who is also an artist, woodsman, and still makes items such as dream catchers, walking sticks, moccasins,etc. He has four childern, seven grandchildren, four greatgrandchildren and is beloved by everyone that takes the time to know him. He fought for the United States in Korea and is awarded the purple heart along with many other medals. He still lives in the Southwestern part of Tucson today.
External links