A Survey of Indian Assimilation in Eastern Sonora

Item Type Book; text

Authors Hinton, Thomas B.

Publisher University of Arizona Press (Tucson, AZ)

Rights Copyright © Arizona Board of Regents

Download date 25/09/2021 01:13:46

Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/615817

A SURVEY OF INDIAN ASSIMILATION IN EASTERN SONORA

THOMAS B. HINTON

NUMBER 4

ANTHROPOLOGICAL PAPERS

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

TUCSON

1 959 ---_ UNITED STATES -...... 1 - 1 - _-. ____1 - -..... -- L , ~.j- , -/" +-,, '"~\ "'," ,. ,\ ",", ". po. ~ "'. I

I

, u \ I ,• \ " r- ...... I I / t­ O ..

TIlE MODERN STATE OF SONORA SHOWING APPROXIMATE LOCATION OF TIlE OPATAS, JOVAS, AND LOWER PIMAS AS TIlEY WERE IN 1678 SOON AFTER MISSIONIZATION. NOOAIES ------UNITED STATES ------______QE?~S__ OAGUA PRIETA

? OBACOACHI 1 o CHINAPA

...~~'-',z ...~ .. <~ CUMPAS l 0: ~ / :> ~ i (I); E 0 HUASABAS ~ Q. ~ § 0 GiIANADos MOCTEZti?~ / PIVIPA\cri ! TERAPA ""l,\\' NACORI CHICO E9 DIVlSADEROS E9 e SAUZ OTEPACHI ~ • BUENA VISTA (TARUACHI)

t> TORRES (PAPAGOS)

MODERN TOWNS OF OPATA SONORA SHOWING APPROXIMATE DEGREE OF SURVIVAL OF INDIAN POPULATION IN 1955 (POPULATION OF OUTLllNG RANCHES INCLUDED WITH NEAREST TOWN).

• STILL LOCALLY CONSIDERED AN INDIAN VILLAGE

t) HEAVY INDIAN MINORITY

E9 FIVE TO FIFTEEN PERCENT INDIAN FAMILIES REMAINING e ONE TO FIVE PERCENT INDIAN FAMILIES REMAINING o FEW OR NO INDIANS 3Q.._--- DISTRIBUTION OF JOVAS - 1955 • JOVA VIU.AGE VILLAGE WITH MANY JOV A • FAMILIES @ VILLAGE WITH SEVERAL JOVA FAMILIES e VIU.AGE WITH INDITOS WHO ARE PROBABLY JOVA DESCENDANTS 0 OTHER TOWNS t& ., \... ,.., , \, I

I

I u

ED MORIS

DISTRIBUTION OF LOWER PIMAS IN 1955

ED FORMER PIMA TOWNS • CONTEMPORARY CENTERS OF PIMA POPULATION o OTHER TOWNS j8::AREAS WITH MODERN PIMA POPULATION '/// PREFACE

THE PURPOSE of this work was to survey exclusively Spanish. This paper is a synthesis of eastern Sonora in an attempt to determine what, these data in addition to those gained by personal if anything, remains of the aboriginal groups to observation. that area. I am indebted to E. H. Spicer for his direc­ In the course of the survey, all settlements tion, his suggestions and encouragement. The larger than small ranches in the old Opata and manuscript was critically read by Dr. Ralph Beals Java area were covered, with the exception of of the University of California at Los Angeles those in the upper Bavispe Valley above Hml­ and by Mrs. Paul Ezell of San Diego, California. sabas, Bacoachi and Chinapa north of Arispe, The hclp of both is gratefully acknowledged. At the town of Alamos south of Ures, and Soyopa the time of this survey Roger C. Owen was study­ on the Yaqui River. Unless otherwise indicated, ing a community of Indian background in all settlements mentioned in this paper were vis­ northern-central Sonora. I am grateful to him ited at least once. I feel justified in including data for numerous useful comments and suggestions. from towns not visited since residents of these In addition, the interest and encouragement of towns were encountered and interviewed. Using Mrs. Clara Lee Tanner and Dr. Harry Getty of Tepupa as a base, I covered the Valley of Sahua­ the University of Arizona are much appreciated. ripa and adjoining portions of the Sierra Madre Finally, I wish to acknowledge my debt to the into Chihuahua in addition to the Valley of Batuc. many Sonorans for their hospitality and interested The San Miguel, Matape, Bacanora, and middle cooperation. Yaqui river valleys were visited several times, as This paper is the result of field work under­ was the Moctezuma area. Less information was taken between April and August, 1955 and in collected from the upper portions of the Sonora June of 1956 through a Comin's Fund fellowship Valley, so the coverage there is less complete from the Department of Anthropology, University than in the other sectors of Opata Sonora. of Arizona and under the direction of Dr. E. H. Whenever possible I stayed with Indian fami­ Spicer of that department. lies and gathered data from both Indian and THOMAS B. HINTON non-Indian residents of the area. Interviews were University of California both formal and informal. The language used was July I, 1959 INTRODUCTION

THE ABORIGINAL peoples of the Mexican bers of these groups and their non-Indian neigh­ state of Sonora, of which there were seven major bors is the greater retention of Spanish colonial groups when the Spaniards arrived in the mid­ forms introduced by the early missionaries. These sixteenth century, have to a large extent been lost traits, particularly religious practices, have come, sight of. These seven groups were the Yaquis, through long association, to be regarded locally Mayos, Pimas, Papagos, Opatas, Jovas, and Seris. as characterizing the Sonoran Indian. Acculturation has proceeded in such a fashion The second period of change is seen in the that, with the possible exception of the Seris, gradual merging of Spanish-Indian colonial cul­ there is no group which ean be said to observe ture with that of modern non-Indian Sonora. For aboriginal patterns to any great degree. None of most of these groups, then, the contemporary the major tribes of Sonora, however, has disap­ situation can be described most accurately as that peared completely. The descendants of these of participants, in varying degrees, in the peasant­ Indians, who can be found in most areas of the like subculture of rural Sonora rather than that of state, manifest, group by group, differing stages tribal Indians (peasant subculture as defined by of physical and cultural absorption into surround­ Wagley and Harris 1955: 431-433). ing Mexican populations. This paper is concerned with the three most The tribes of Sonora, in fact, present a rough assimilated indigenous groups in present day So­ continuum of varying responses to contact nora; namely, the Lower Pimas, the Jovas, and ranging from the least Mexicanized Seris, on the the Opatas. These are Indian groups among which one hand, through the more Hispanicized Sonora there has been little ethnological work and which Papagos, Lower Pimas, Yaquis, and Mayos, and have been considered by most writers to be extinct terminating in the almost absorbed Jovas and or nearly so. The Upper Pimas are omitted be­ Opatas (Spicer 1954: 663-678). Two other cause of their uncertain contemporary position. groups, the Cocopas and the Varohios, with Although apparently extinct over their old terri­ extensions into Sonora are not included. Among tory in Sonora, the possibility remains that certain these peoples the processes of acculturation must segments of this former Sonoran group may still be examined in terms of two major periods of exist, having been incorporated into the modern change. The first of these is the colonial period Papago of Arizona. at which time the natives were brought under A second purpose of the paper is to delimit mission influence and the cultures of all under­ and locate the native Indians still existing in con­ went extensive alteration. Again excepting the temporary eastern Sonora and briefly to define Seris, who will no longer be included in this the varying degrees of survival as ethnic entities paper, the result was a mixed Spanish colonial­ which these people display, group by group and native Indian type culture which in many ways area by area. By this examination it is hoped parallels that outlined by La Farge for Middle that the place of these people in relation to the America (La Farge 1940: 281-291). Today one larger Sonoran society and their present orienta­ of the major points of difference between mem- tion can be better understood. CONTENTS

1. CONTEMPORARY SOCIO-RACIAL CLASSIFICATIONS 2. THE OPATAS AND lOVAS 3. MODERN DISTRIBUTION OF OPATAS AND lOVAS THE SAN MIGUEL RIVER 19 THE SONORA RIVER 19 THE MOCTEZUMA RIVER 20 THE VALLEY OF BATUC 20 THE MATAPE VALLEY 21 THE MIDDLE YAQUI RIVER 21 THE BACANORA RIVER . . 21 THE SAHUARIP A VALLEY . 21 THE SIERRA EAST OF THE VALLEY OF SAHUARIPA 23 THE GRANADOS VALLEY 24 4. THE LOWER PIMAS THE URES 26 THE NEBOMES 26 THE YECORAS 28 5. CONCLUSIONS 30 ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Opata weaver. Arivechi 13 2. Java. Ponida 14 3. Fariseo masks. Tepupa 15 4. HUIlki. Palm-weaving hut. P6nida 17 5. Casa de das Naves. Tepupa 18 6. P6nida street scene 20 7. Java girls. Ponida 22 8. Girls in front af a huuki. Tepupa 24 9. Milling wheat at Rancho Taruachi 25 10. Pima family from Maieaba, at Y ceara 27 11. Pima dwelling. Y ceara 28 12. Pimas. Onabas 29

REFERENCES 31 SCHOOL TEACHER OF JaVA DESCENT. paN IDA. 1 CONTEMPORARY SOCIO-RACIAL CLASSIFICATIONS

IN EASTERN Sonora there are several socio­ rank connotations in that the Whites are char­ racial designations in common use today. A defi­ acteristically at the top, both economically and nition of these is necessary if we are to examine socially, while the Indians most often are in the place of the Indians in that area at the present evidence at the lower levels. Mestizos are found time. Although terms vary to some extent from at all levels, but appear to be most numerous district to district and from person to person, their between the two extremes. use is roughly consistent over the whole region. In Blanco or white is used in two senses. In its the case of the Opatas and lovas, where present primary use the word is applied to people of cultural differences from the non-Indian popula­ complete or nearly complete European physical tion are slight to non-existent, these classifications appearance. In the area under discussion this appear to be based largely on known or assumed physical type is confined largely to the upper physical ancestry with some consideration as to class of the larger towns, being n 'ore in evidence socio-economic position and village of origin. The in the northern part of the territory and in the Indian category, ncvertheless, coincides to a high vicinity of the old Spanish mining camps. In a degree with those families still retaining features wider sense the term blanco is used when refer­ of "Indian" culture. In much of the Pima area, ring to all those not tagged inditos or indios, being the designations have a language basis as well. used interchangeably with genIe de razon. In this In most cases, as there is no definitc line of divi­ paper blanco will be used in the primary sense. sion between the groups, the categories overlap. Mestizo, also called el tipo mexicano, refers It should be mentioned that often "Indianness" to the mixed European-Indian population where is a matter of generation. The grandparents may physical features are not pronouncedly Indian. be classed as Indians while the continually more These people are also often labeled blanco with mixed and Mexicanized second and third genera­ the majority calling themselves mestizos only tions become gente de razon (people of reason, when discussing their ancestry. i.e. non-Indian). These terms carry some social The indiada, the Indians, is subdivided into 10 SONORAN SURVEY two groups, the indito and the indio legitimo. itself, although it is occasionally used loosely for Another term, indio crudo, is also used; based on all Indians or even all inhabitants of "Indian" additional physical criteria, indio crudo cross­ villages, carries a connotation roughly that of cuts both types. "full blooded Indian" in common American usage. The inconsistencies of its use, however, Indito, although on occasion used for all destroy much of its value as a socio-racial clas­ Indians, refers primarily to people who retain a sification in a study of the area in question. predominantly Indian physical appearance, espe­ cially dark skin, but who no longer speak Indian A chart embodying these terms may add to languages and who live much like the mestizos the clarity of the designations. Rural Sonoran is in most respects. A portion of this group retains defined as the peasant-like culture of the ranch slight cultural differences from the general non­ and village agricultural areas. Urban Sonoran Indian population, differences which will be ex­ refers to that of the rapidly modernizing and amined later. In the Opata area the inditos are industrializing cities of coastal Sonora. referred to as Opatas and are pointed out by the Sonorans as the Opata Indians of today. The three groups in question, Opatas, lovas, and Pimas, now live among the non-Indian popu­ Indio crudo refers to a person of marked lation of eastern Sonora in such a way that it is Indian physical type showing no Caucasian mix­ possible to pass through a village inhabited almost ture in either complexion, hair, or facial features. exclusively by Indian descendants of these tribes An indio crudo can belong to the same group as and notice no difference in the appearance of the the indito, being merely the relatively unmixed town from that of other villages in the area. As individual but possessing the same culture traits Indian families commonly live scattered on the as the indito. A person of strongly Indian physi­ outskirts of towns or on surrounding rancherias, cal type is likewise labeled an indio crudo in the they are seldom much in evidence. A few inhab­ indio legitim a division. itants of some eastern Sonoran towns, belonging mostly to the blanco category, are unaware Indio leg/timo (real Indian) refers to those of the existence of an Indian popUlation. The who still speak an Indian language and practice knowledge of the word lova, for instance, is lim­ other elements of what is considered Indian cul­ ited largely to the more Indian descendants of ture. In the great majority of cases such individ­ this tribe and to some of their immediate neigh­ uals are physically indios crudos. Often the term bors in the district of Sahuaripa. To most of the indio is limited to such "real Indians." In such population of Sahuaripa, the Jovas are merely in­ a context the Pimas are usually called indios, as ditos. The modern cultures of the Opatas, lovas, are the Yaquis and the Varohios. Those consid­ and lowland Lower Pimas are almost identical, ered Opatas are more often classed as inditos. and they do not differ greatly from that of other The descendants of the Opatas find this term less Mexicans in the area. The mountain Pimas, how­ offensive than the designation indio with its con­ ever, remain as distinct groups to a much greater notations of living as an Indian. The term indio degree than do the others. PHYSICAL TYPE CULTURE LANGUAGE SOCIO-EcONOMIC

-~,

Marked Modern Mexican BLANCO Caucasoid Urban Sonoran Spanish Upper Rural Sonoran

--

Predominantly Modern Mexican Upper MESTIZO Caucasoid Urban Sonoran Spanish Middle Rural Sonoran Lower

Largely Modern Mexican Urban Sonoran INDITO Predominantly Rural Sonoran Spanish Middle Indian A few Indian Lower (aboriginal and Spanish colonial) traits r------INDIO CRUDO Marked Indian Can possess traits of either Indito or Indio Legitimo

-- ,----

Rural Sonoran Lower to INDIO LEGITIM a Marked Indian Indian (aboriginal Spanish completely and Spanish Indian separate colonial) social group 2 THE OPATAS AND JOVAS

THE OPAT AS, when first contacted by Euro­ seventeenth century and were rapidly converted peans in 1538, lived in agricultural rancherias to Christianity (Bannon 1955). They apparently and villages along the river valleys of eastern accepted Spanish culture eagerly, and the Jesuit, Sonora. Their territory stretched from the western Pfefferkorn, writing in the mid-eighteenth century, slopes of the Sierra Madre to the borders of the speaks of frequent intermarriage with Spanish desert plains of western Sonora. They lived on soldiers and miners. There were probably several the Yaqui River and all its tributaries from the reasons for the Opatas' ready amalgamation with northern headwaters near the present United the Spaniards, their exposed position in regard States boundary as far south as the town of to the Apache being a major consideration in T6nichi and along the Sonora River from north later times. Another reason undoubtedly was the of its headwaters south almost to Ures. The San fact that the fertile Opata valleys attracted Span­ Miguel Valley was occupied from Cucurpe south ish settlers to a greater extent than some of the to the vicinity of modern Rayon. The Opatas, more desert regions of Sonora. The assimilation including those speaking the Eudeve dialect, were of the Opatas was consequently far advanced by a numerous group. Sauer (1935: 29) places the end of the nineteenth century. Bandelier vis­ their aboriginal population at 60,000 while other ited the Sonora River, the upper Bavispe River, sources give somewhat smaller estimates. A mis­ and the Bacadehuachi-Nacori Chico area in 1884 sion census of the native Christian population of and found some remains of Opata culture still in the Opata and Lower Pima area of Sonora in existence and a few people who still spoke the 1678, less than sixty years after the establishment language (Bandelier 1890) . Lumholtz passed of the first mission, in which time no great epi­ briefly through the same area in 1894 and noticed demics are reported, gives a total population of little of Indian culture (Lumholtz 1902, Vol. 1: around 20,000 (Bannon 1955: 145-146). This 10). Hrdlicka paid a visit to the San Miguel valley would seem to bear out a lesser estimate for the in 1902 and discovered Opata speaking people pre-Spanish Opata. This tribe, occupying the of the adult generation still living at Tuape and heart of Sonora, spoke a language of the Cahita­ Pueblo Viejo and a few native ceremonies still Opata-Tarahumar division of the Uto-Aztecan in existence (Hrdlicka 1904: 71-84). Johnson family (Kroeber ] 934). Bordering them on the studied Opata descendants at T6nichi in 1940. He west, north and south were Piman speaking reported that the Opatas "have completely disap­ groups with which there probably was frequent peared today as a cultural and ethnic entity" mixture. (Johnson 1950: 7). The pre-conquest Opatas possessed a culture Whatever the factors may have been which which was similar in many respects to that of led to the voluntary amalgamation of this group, other Sonoran tribes, the Piman and Cahita the Opatas of today present a picture of a people peoples (Beals 1932: 144-147; Johnson 1950: 8). on the verge of complete mergence with their As the history of the Opatas is fairly ade­ neighbors - a process, however, which is still quately covered in both documentary and secon­ incomplete in some areas. dary sources, it will be no more than touched The Jovas, whom the early Jesuits reported upon here (Ocaranza 1933, 1937; Johnson 1950; as speaking a language different from that of the Villa 1951; Bannon 1955). The Opatas were Opatas, lived in the barrancas (gorges) of the concentrated in missions by the Jesuits of the Sierra Madre along the Papigochic River (Rio THE OPATAS AND lOVAS 13

Aros) and its tributaries and in the sierras to the Opata. There evidently are no post-colonial or north and south. On the east they were bounded modern reports of this tribe. As their present by the Tarahumaras, and on the west they were situation is almost exactly that of the Opatas, found among the Opatas in the valley of the Sa­ they will be treated here with the descendants huaripa and possibly even farther west (Guiteras of that group. 1951: 114). Their native culture is reported as In the old Opata territory, from the Sierra being generally similar to that of the Opatas, Madre to the San Miguel Valley and from above but with more emphasis given to gathering. They the headwaters of the Sonora and Yaqui rivers probably never numbered more than a few thous­ south to the town of T6nichi, the population is and (Sauer 1934: 26). today, according to local statements, overwhelm­ ingly of partial Opata descent. As the great ma­ jority of these people are far removed from the Indian in both appearance and memories, they are not considered and do not think of them­ selves as Indians but only as Mexicans and Sonorans. Those still designated as Indians are scattered throughout the area, being in most places much in the minority. In most towns of the old Opata territory, nonetheless, there remain a few families who are called inditos by their neighbors. A generation ago there presumably was considerably greater proportion of these families. There are, in addition, a few small villages and rancherias which are designated, both by their inhabitants and by their neighbors, as pueblos de puros inditos (towns of just Indians) or pueblos de puros opatas. The population of these villages is considerably more Indian than that of neigh­ boring towns, and they preserve an emphasis 011 certain practices, described below, which they consider to be Indian and which set them off slightly from the other Mexicans. These people are more often called inditas than Opatas, al­ FIG.!. OPATA WEAVER. ARIVECHL though their Opata origin is generaIJy recognized by all concerned. While it is probable that there The J ovas, in contrast to the Opatas, were are few , if any, among them who have no trace much less inclined to accept missionization. of Caucasian ancestry, marked Indian physical Missionary accounts complain of their frequent types are fairly common. These characteristically apostasy (Ocaranza 1937: 294; Guiteras 1951: are people five feet two inches to five feet eight 73-74). They were to a considerable extent inches in stature, usuaIJy of slight build, medium driven out of the mountains by the Apaches in to very dark brown skin, and with purely Indian the middle and late eighteenth century, and many facial features. The heavy body types seen among settled permanently in the valley of Sahuaripa the Pimas are rare. Caucasian mixture in many (Guiteras 1951: 113; J ova oral tradition, Hinton of the inditos is most apparent in that the nose field notes 1955). Late mission period accounts and face appear slightly narrower and the beard describe them as being absorbed by the Opatas is more pronounced than in those who are indios and as rapidly abandoning their language for crudos. A very common trait among the Opatas 14 SONORAN SURVEY

is an extremely long attached ear lobe. This is found in nearly all the indios crudos and in many of the other inditos as well. Population figures for the Opatas are non­ existent. Any figure, therefore, must necessarily be arbitrary in the extreme in that it can be only a rough estimate at best, and it must depend on the writer's opinion as to where the line between Indian and mestizo should be drawn. In 1864-66 the French captain, Guillet, estimated the total population of pure and nearly pure Opata at 5,000 to 6,000. He likewise remarked on the difficulties involved in arriving at an accurate figure because of the extensive mixture of Opatas with their neighbors (Torre Villar 1953: 53) . On the basis of a rough count of Indian fami­ lies and their ratio to non-Indians in the villages covered, and extended by inference to those areas not visited, I estimate the "Indians" among the modern descendants of the Opata number from seven to ten percent of the present popula­ tion of the area, around 4,000, of whieh some 500 would be indios crudos showing no visible FIG. 2. JOVA. PONIDA. trace of non-Indian mixture. Hrdlicka estimated that the full-blooded Opatas numbered 500 to 600 in 1902 (Hrdlicka 1904). He, however, was The following is a breakdown of the cultural not familiar with the entire area inhabited by elements which set the last remnants of the Opata descendants. The Jova descendants in the Opatas and the Jovas off from their neighbors Indian eategory probably number about 250, with to some small extent, with some references to an estimated less than 50 showing no visible the disappearance of former elements of this type. European mixture. Many of the Jova descendants Both the Opata and Jova languages appar­ have Opata or Pima admixture as well. ently are now completely dead. Six months' search The Indians of the old Opata area today in the area failed to turn up a single person who retain a few traits of presumed Opata culture had a knowledge of more than a few words of as well as memories of other items which were either language. From numerous informants it still in existence two or three generations ago. was determined that in the first years of the Some elements of Opata origin have gone to twentieth century only a few old people still make up the common culture of rural eastern spoke "fa lengua" among themselves. In Tepupa Sonora and are shared by all the rural and small the last two speakers of the language died in town people. Other elements, though they may 1922 and 1935. It is possible that one or two be present in the mestizo population, are so may still exist among the oldest of the Sonoran much in evidence among the Indians as to be Indians; however, in 1955 I traced down many considered characteristic. An example of this is rumors of a remaining Opata speaker, and in the working of palm leaf into basketry and hats. every case these were found to be untrue, or Such traits have been passed down from the the person was now dead. Apparently the last Opatas through the generations to the progres­ speakers of the language were unwilling for their sively more mestizo population. children to learn it, not wanting them to be THE OPATAS AND lOVAS 15

HIndians." It is said they spoke it among them­ Though these semana santa observances arc selves only when no outsider was present. Many quite general in most of eastern Sonora, repre­ of the present older generation, however, claim senting in some villages a continuum from Indian their parents had some knowledge of Opata, and mission times down to the present mestizo pop­ many of these can repeat a few words or a ulation, by far the most elaborate rites are phrase or two. Opata words remain in many carried on in the more Indian villages which place names, with towns, arroyos, hills, caves, characteristically considered the semana santa as ranches, and springs still called by their names particularly their own. In many of the non-Indian in the old language. Other survivals of Opata villages the observances are much abbreviated or speech are the names of some plants and certain have been replaced to a large degree. family names which are fairly common among Most of the pueblos de puros inditos have the inditos of eastern Sonora, the Tanori, M6vari, patron saints which serve as strong integrating Mayve, Busanic, Mahuari, Sagori, etc., all of features. These village santos arc treated with which are called Opata, and Guirisa and Ubari extreme loyalty and devotion by the Indians. which are considered to be of Java origin. At present the priests stationed in the larger A greater survival of folk Catholicism is found towns are attempting to shift the emphasis toward among the Indian descendants of the Opatas and more conventional Catholicism to the exclusion the Jovas than among the non-Indian population. of the more "Indian" folk practices which they This is derived from religious practices introduced consider as disrespectful to the church. Although by the early missionaries combined with certain they have succeeded in this in some of the Indian elements (Treutlein 1949: 240-241; John­ towns, folk Catholicism is still strong in the vil­ son 1950: 37-44). A ceremonial round for the lages of inditos and is carried on today largely lenten season is still in evidence and roughly without the aid of a priest. parallels that of the Yaqui. The semana Santa Fragments of former Opata ceremonials are (Holy Week), the major ceremonial observance seen in some of the modern observances of the of the year, is celebrated with processions, region. In Tepupa a pascola dancer, dressed in dramas, dances, and devotions. The masked work clothes with the addition of cocoon rattles fariseo society appears in most villages of the but wearing no mask, appears in some of the area, those now mestizo as well as those still Holy Week rites as does the coyote, another considered Indian. pascola-like dancer dancing to music imitative

FIG. 3. FARISEO MASKS. TEPUPA. 16 SONORAN SURVEY of coyote howls. The taguaro, which is evi­ discrimination. It is my OplTIlOn, based on per­ dently thc remnant of an Opata scalp dance, sonal observation only, that the incidence of (Hrdlicka 1904: 75-77) is still carried on in drunkenness, family instability and overt per­ Meresichi and possibly other villages in the San sonality disorders among the Opatas and Jovas Miguel valley on the sabado de gloria (Holy is approximately the same, and that these take Saturday) . the same forms as among other residents of the The matachin is still held in several pueblos area who are at the same socia-economic level. of the area. In Tepupa the performers, in this This would suggest that some of the social and case girls, dance on Easter Sunday both in pro­ psychological maladjustments so common among cession and in the church. They also appear on half-assimilated Indian groups in the southwest­ the dia de la Santa Cruz and San Juan's Day. ern United States have ceased to appear here as The matachln is performed also in the non-Indian a by-product of the assimilation process. town of Suaqui de Batuc and even in Sahuaripa. There is a strong tendency for the inditos to Some ceremonies are no longer being per­ marry within the Indian classification. This, none­ formed although they have passed out of use so theless, does not prevent frequent marriages with recently as to be remembered by some of the the mestizo group. older Indians of Opata Sonora. One of these, the In the realm of material culture there is mariachi, an obscene dance mentioned by Ban­ apparently a slightly greater survival of what delier for the Opatas, is today remembered as must have been Opata traits. These, however, being held some seventy years ago at Ponida have been taken into the present culture of among the Jovas, and among the Opatas at Ari­ rural Sonora and in most areas belong almost vechi across the river. At that time, according to as much to the mestizos and even to the blancos those who have witnessed it, the dance was per­ as to the Indians. For instance, the present me­ formed only by the elderly while the younger tate in use in all small town and ranch homes Indians scorned it as a foolish old custom. An­ in the area is a legless trough variety identical other ceremony, a comic dance called el apache, to those seen in prehistoric sites in these valleys. in which a performer dressed as an Apache stalks This is used both to prepare food and to grind and shoots a deer, was witnessed by the Java grain. Similarly, coiled and scraped handmade descendants of Ponida and Santo Tomas within pottery is made today throughout all of eastern the last thirty-five years, but has now disap­ Sonora by both Indian and mestizo women, al­ peared. The daguimaca, a gift exchange dance, though the greater proportion of potters is in was held between the people of the towns of the Indian group. All cooking is done with this Opodepe and Huepac until about the turn of pottery in most rural homes in these areas, and the century. The daguimaca or cuelga is like­ in some districts the potter's tools and materials wise reported by Hrdlicka as still occurring at are still called by their Opata names. the time of his 1902 visit to Tuape. The vena­ The weaving (twilling) of palm leaf into dito or deer dance appeared at Ponida on San basket forms, petates, and hats is probably the Juan's Day until some fifteen years ago. chief home industry of the area stretching from There are apparently no surviving shamans, the lower San Miguel and Sonora valleys into although Indian brujos (witches) who met in the Sierra Madre and increases in frequency as sacred caves are remembered. the sierra is approached. This industry is defi­ The values, attitudes, and manners of the nitely linked with the Indians, being popularly nearly pure Opatas are indistinguishable from considered in the area as an Indian invention. those of their neighbors, for they are now well The settlements and families of Indians are the integrated members of the rural society of east­ centers of palm work. Although the twilling of ern Sonora. Although they are sometimes teased hats has become almost universal among mestizo for being Indians, they appear to suffer no overt as well as Indian women in the Batuc and THE OPATAS AND lOVAS 17

Sahuaripa valleys, most mestizo palm workers and Santa Tomas with long hair and G-strings. assert that they or their mothers learned the Thcse have now passed completely. Hair is worn techniques from the Indians. Today Indian short by all men at the present time. Women's women are considered the best palm workers, dress is the same as that of other rural Sonoran and in many areas they are the only palm womcn, with canvas slippers being the everyday workers. Most Indian palm workers, and an footwear. Indian women seem to prefer dark blue occasional non-Indian, use the semi-subterranean or grey, striped rebosos. Many of the unmarried weaving house known as the huuki in which they girls curl their hair. work in the dry season to keep the palm pliable. There is a tendency in many areas for the This structure appears in various forms among inditos to live in jacal type structures, (a hut, the Opata and Jova descendants, the mountain usually a framework of posts with wattle and Pima and the Varohio and must be of Indian daub walls) while the mestizos live in the con­ origin. The basket forms similarly have Indian ventional flat-topped adobe houses. Hrdlicka names. There is documentary evidence that the reported the same tendency for the Opata and palm weaving complex is of considerable an­ other Sonoran Indians at the time of his visit tiquity in eastern Sonora (Treutlein 1949: 245; in 1902 (Hrdlicka 1904: 58, 63). Again this is Guiteras 1951: 24). There is also archaeological not a rule but only a tendency. However, most evidence, since I have found twilled palm material villages of the Rio Sonora and Rio Yaqui drain­ in cave sites. ages have a few jacal type structures scattered on In dress the descendants of the Opatas and the outskirts of the settlement in which live the Jovas differ in no way from their neighbors; con­ families of inditas. The pure wattlc-and-daub jacal ventional dress is worn by all. For the men this is seldom seen today in this area, having been consists of shirt, trousers (usually jeans) with replaced by the casa de dos naves or the "house belt, a palm or straw hat, and shoes, or more of two naves," referring to the two naves used often a type of heel-less, homemade shoe known in roof construction which give the structure a as the tegua. No one now wears huaraches, al­ slightly sloping roof. This dwelling has a rec­ though within the memory of living people old tangular framework of upright mesquite posts Opata and Jova men wore one-stringed rawhide with an additional support post in the center of huaraches. Similarly, very old people of the val­ the floor on which rest the two timbers (the ley of Sahuaripa remember old lovas of Ponida "naves") used as a roof beam. The slightly slant

FIG. 4. HUUKI. PALM-WEAVING HUT. PONIDA. 18 SONORAN SURVEY roof is composed of a layer of poles, grass longer be considered an exclusively Indian trait. and earth. This structure differs from the older Such are the few minor differences which type jacal in that adobe bricks are laid between to some extent still set the modern Opatas and the support posts to form the walls whereas in Jovas off from their neighbors. Although the dif­ the earlier types walls were of wattle and daub. ferences are subtle, they nevertheless exist, and In many places these are considered to be Indian there is a definitely recognized Indian population houses, although they are also used as tempo­ throughout the area. Whether these people can rary shelters and as ranch housing by all inhabi­ be said to constitute a separate ethnic group or tants of the area. In addition, brush enclosed merely the more Indian elements of this portion outdoor kitchens are often used by the Indian of rural Sonoran society is a point in question. families. In some towns, however, the inditos live The writer would be inclined to include them in in conventional adobe houses. The dwellings of the latter category. It is certain that these people the Indians are usually well dispersed in contrast consider themselves Mexicans and are deeply of­ to the closely spaced homes of the non-Indians. fended when a distinction is made between them The tepeste, an aboriginal Opata bed con­ and other Mexicans. The Pima Bajos, however, sisting of cane poles tied together, is still used make a distinction between both themselves and by many of the poorer Indians as is the petate, "mexicanos" and between the nearly pure Opatas a palm leaf mat (Johnson 1950: 10). How­ and Mexicans. Most Opatas, nevertheless, would ever, this, like other household items that the apparently be happy to forget that they are In­ aboriginal Opatas probably used, has become so dians. With this attitude their complete disap­ associated with Sonora ranch life that it can no pearance seems assured within another generation.

FIG. 5. CASA DE DOS NAVES. TEPUPA. 3

MODERN DISTRIBUTION OF OPATAS AND JOVAS

ALTHOUGH there have been extensive reshuf­ the general population only in the valley of flings of population from the arrival of the Sahuaripa and the sierras to the east, although Spaniards to the present time, most of the area the Pimas and Varohfos of the more distant today is populated by families who have resided mountains are familiar with it. in the same district for many generations. The As the river valleys are the recognized geo­ modern culture of the whole area is quite ho­ graphical units, they will be used here as referents. mogeneous, but there are variations in the ethnic make-up of the towns, a few being much more THE SAN MIGUEL RIVER Indian in composition than others. THE MA10R VILLAGES of the San Miguel­ The people of all these municipios (the Mexi­ Cucurpe, Tuape, Pueblo Viejo, Meresichi and can town unit with its lands) are primarily sub­ Opodepe-are now predominantly blanco and sistence agriculturalists and small time cattlemen mestizos, although all have Indian families. At with, in addition, a few large cattlemen in the Cucurpe the few remaining families of Indians sierras. Home industries such as the twilling of live in the pueblo viejo which adjoins the old palm hats, mescal making, wood cutting, etc., mission church and on nearby ranches. South add to the meager income of many families. The of Cucurpe, at Tuape, Pueblo Viejo, Meresichi last few decades have seen a heavy migration and adjacent ranches can be found the heaviest from all of these villages toward the new indus­ concentrations of Indians in the valley today. trial and agricultural developments of western In the area between Tuape and Meresichi and southern Sonora. perhaps a third of the population is considered Today Opata and lova descendants are the as Indian. This holds for Pueblo Viejo, while only recognizable Sonoran Indian elements in this the smaller settlement of Rodeo may be half area. The groups of Yaquis who lived and worked Indian in composition. Tuape and Meresichi, in many towns and on ranches before the 1910- although having substantial Indian minorities, 1920 revolution are now gone, leaving only an have a smaller percentage, probably around thirty occasional Yaqui here and there. Except for a percent. In Opodepe the percentage probably does few families in the Sierra Madre area, there are not exceed ten. Rayon at the south end of the no Pima settlements in the region. The territory valley has few inditos and little Indian associa­ is much the same as that in which the Spaniards tion. As a whole, the San Miguel Valley can be first encountered the Opatas four hundred years pointed out as one of the major areas of Opata ago. I could not find any knowledge, in any of survival, probably having an Indian population the villages, of the Eudeve dialect of Opata of at least 15 percent. mentioned in earlier sources. The inhabitants of the old Eudeve towns refer to their Indian an­ cestors as Opatas. Only some Yaquis still know THE SONORA RIVER the word, using it to refer to a tribe somewhere THE FORMER INDIAN towns of the Rio to the north of them (E. H. Spicer, personal Sonora area from Bacoachi through Arispe, Sino­ communication). The term "lova" is known by quipe, Bamlmichi, Huepac, Aconchi, Bavhicora, 20 SONORAN SURVEY and Suaqui to Masocahui have retained a small culturally, still to be found in Sonora. Another percentage of inditos. Probably the greatest num­ rancheria, Pivipa, which was not visited, was bers would be found in the area surrounding designated as a settlement of Indians, although Arispe, in the neighborhood of Baviacora, and this was not confirmed by personal investigation. at Masocahui, with the area between Arispe and Moctezuma, however, has a majority of people Baviacora showing a smaller percentage. At of mestizo and blanco types, with the blancos Baviacora the complete semana santa rites are being very numerous. Tepachi, south of Mocte­ still held, while at Masocahui only the fa rise os zuma, is a typical Sonoran town inhabited by appear. Palm weaving (twill work) is done at mestizos and blancos and shows few traces of the lower end of the area. Ures, below Masocahui, Indians. Divisideros some few miles to the north, was Pima territory and most of the modern inditos however, has several families of inditos. of that area are Pima descendants. THE VALLEY OF BA TUC THE MOCTEZUMA RIVER THIS AREA of the Moctezuma River valley MOCTEZUMA (old Oposura of the Opatas) includes the four towns of San Pedro, Batuc, today has many families of inditos who approxi­ Tepupa and Suaqui de Batuc. Of these Tepupa mate Indian types and who are sometimes called is known as an Indian town both by the other indios opatas. Many of these people are natives towns and by its own inhabitants. Here a large of the village of Terapa some few miles away proportion of the population (one-third to one­ which is known as a pueblo de puros inditos. The half) are of marked Indian physical type, while present population of Terapa is around 130, even the more mestizo-like individuals usually with many more living in Moctezuma or having moved to the coastal agricultural region. These consider themselves Indians. Tepupa has an people are the palm workers of the district and elaborate ceremonial calendar climaxing in the are known for their devout folk Catholicism. Holy Week. Because they have good land, the Terapa is one of the main concentrations of 600 Tepupeflos are the most prosperous people people approximating the Opatas, physically and of the valley.

FIG. 6. PONIDA STREET SCENE. MODERN DISTRIBUTION 21

Of the other vill<\ges, Batuc, although claiming ceremonial calendar and are the home of many Opata origin, now has no inditos, the population inditos. T6nichi, the most southerly Opata town being mestiza or blanco. Suaqui de Batuc simil­ on the Yaqui River, now is overwhelmingly of arly has no Indians. Oral tradition has it that the mestizo and even blanco make-up. There are, population of Suaqui is partially descended from however, numerous families of indios opatas. the Spanish miners of the old real de Todos When Johnson visited T6nichi in 1940 he found Santos as well as refugees from Apache raids of a person or two with some knowledge of the the early nineteenth century. Suaqui de Batuc was Opata language (Johnson 1950: 8, 43). The established originally by the Spaniards to relocatc semana santa rites are held here today, evidently rebellious Pima Bajos (Sauer 1934: 38). Several being carried over from Opata days while the years ago, a few Pimas from Onabas were work­ population became predominantly non-Indian. ing at Suaqui, but all have since gone. San Pedro The families of T6nichi today known as de la Cueva is a newer town with a popUlation opatas or inditos live largely in jacales on the taken from many spots, there being nevertheless outskirts of the village or on nearby ranches. several families of Indian type probably origin­ They probably make up no more than five to ten ating in Tepupa. percent of the popUlation. The next town down the river-Onabas-was Pima territory and still THE MATAPE VALLEY has Pima inhabitants. THREE PUEBLOS here are today usually recog­ Soyopa and Rebeico have a rather heavy pop­ nized in the area as being of Opata origin and ulation of inditos. Soyopa is often referred to as it is generally stated that until a generation or two an "Opata" village and it is mentioned that the ago they were heavily Indian. Today little remains language was spoken here later than in most of an Indian population in Mazatan and Nacori, towns. The majority of the population today, nev­ there being only the usual few families of inditos ertheless, are mestizos and blancos. The Rudo with the vast majority of the people being blancos Ensayo names Rebeico as a Java town. (Guitt~ras or mestizos. Matape, however, retains an indiada, 1951: 114). there being a high proportion of inditos. Matape also has a greater proportion of jacal-like dwell­ THE BAN CORA RIVER ings and is a center of palm weaving, while the neighboring pueblos do little or none. Matape has BACANORA HAS only five families of inditos, little agricultural land, hence is very poor, depend­ with the majority of the population being mestizos ing to a great extent on mescal making and the of rather Caucasoid type. The small pueblo of wearing of petates as a means of livelihood. 1 Guaycora in the mountains at the head of the would estimate that about a quarter of the people Bacanora River, however, has a predominantly of Matape today are inditas, while in Nacori and indito population. The population of Guaycora Mazatan it would be no more than five percent. IS around a hundred. In all of these towns the fariseos appear dur­ ing the seman a santa (Holy Week) and at other THE SAHU ARIPA V ALLEY folk Catholic ceremonies. The pueblo of Alamos THE VALLEY of Sahuaripa, today probably to the north of the Sierra de Mazatan was not as old fashioned and undiluted an area of rural visited, but it is generally considered to be an Sonoran culture as can be found in the state, has Opata pueblo and today has a minority of inditos. a popUlation that is predominantly mestizo. Many, nonetheless, recognize their partial descent from THE MIDDLE YAQUI RIVER the Opatas and Jovas. The following towns exist THE OLD INDIAN colonial pueblos of the in the valley today. middle Yaqui River - Rebeico, Soyopa, and Sahuaripa with around 4,000 people has a Tonichi - retain the Opata-Spanish colonial good many families of blancos, but the great 22 SONORAN SURVEY

FIG. 7. JOVA GIRLS. PONIDA.

majority of the population is of mestizo type. by refugees from the former Java towns in the There are many families of inditos as well as sierra. Today the population is heavily Indian other families who are in the process of changing physically, with many families of inditos and from the indito to the mestizo group or are In­ others who have emerged from the Indian class dians who have forgotten or have ignored their within the last generation or so. Here most of the origin. Many of the inditos appear to have orig­ mestizos admit Indian grandparents, and the inated in Ponida or Santo Tomas and to have inditos are well aware of their background with moved to Sahuaripa within the last generation. the majority of the older people being able to These are most in evidence in the Pueblo Nuevo. trace lava or Opata ancestry or both. Even here, There is also a family or so of Pima origin who however, the inditos are much in the minority. have come from the sierra to the east. The popu­ Distinctions between the groups at Santo Tomas lation as a whole, however, is far from Indian are extremely vague. in appearance. Twelve miles south of Sahuaripa, the old The people of both the towns of La Mesita Spanish and Opata town of Arivechi is today de Cuahari and Sehuadehuachi four miles south well mixed. Still, there remain several families of Sahuaripa are partially descended from the old of inditos. According to old people of the area, population of the area; there are, nevertheless, Arivechi was a village of the Opatas while Ponida only a few families or individuals of La Mesita across the river was a Java town. Ponida is the today classed as Indians, the majority being only settlement still considered an Indian village mestizos. Sehuadehuachi across the river has no in the valley of Sahuaripa. The twenty families inditos. These towns have a population of several remaining at Ponida are all classed as Indians hundred each. except one which is a recent immigrant from Six miles south of Sahuaripa is the village of Arivechi. Most of these families claim descent Santo Tomas with about 600 people. Oral tradi­ from the lovas, although the majority also have tion has it that Santo Tomas was formed largely some Opata or Pima ancestry. MODERN DISTRIBUTION 23

In this area the Java language lasted longer failed to yield any significant number of Java than that of the Opatas. Numerous reliable per­ survivors. There are Indians at several points sons have reported Java as being spoken by old in the area, but these are Pimas and will be Indians of P6nida until their deaths within the touched on under that group. Oral tradition has last deeade. Even in 1955 I was able to salvage it that some of the Jovas mixed with the Pimas more words and phrases of Java than of Opata in the past and were absorbed into that tribe. in any of the old Opata towns. This is remarkable The mining town of Mulatos has a mixed in that the Java language was reported by the mestizo population drawn from many areas. The Jesuits of the late eighteenth century as being only Indians present here today are Pimas from rapidly abandoned in favor of Opata (Guiteras Maicoba who eome here to trade and to work. 1951: 53). Many "Indian" customs are remem­ Along the Mulatos River north from the town bered in P6nida but are no longer praeticed. The of Mulatos are three small settlements: Santa people of this village say their ancestors came Maria, La Mora, and Guadalupe. La Mora has long ago from Natora in the sierra to escape the two families of Indians who apparently are Pimas, Apaches. This is verified by Spanish reports and Santa Maria is a settlement of four such (Guiteras 1951: 113). For a century and a half families. These people are part of a group found P6nida was a thriving village, but since the turn along various rivers in this part of the mountains, of the century the population has dwindled, be­ all of whose members bear the surname Sierra. coming progressively poorer and moving away. Although they are generally called Pimas, it The people of P6nida, at present numbering less should not be overlooked that they may be par­ than a hundred, live in great poverty, existing tially descended from the former Jova population largely through wood cutting, palm weaving, and of the area. These people speak only Spanish cotton picking near Ciudad Obregon. Although around strangers, but are said to have members all claim to be Indians, most families show some who still speak "the other language." I contacted Caucasian mixture, two decidedly so. these Sierras only briefly. Those seen appeared The towns south of Arivechi-Bamori, Cajon to be slightly mixed racially but living much as de Onapa, Valle de Tacupeto, and Guisamope­ do the Pimas farther east and south. One family today have few if any Indians, all being well of the Sierra group was encountered living in a mestizoized. Of these a family or two of inditos cave in the Aros gorge a few miles west of live at Bamori. Tacupeto has a heavy Caucasoid Refugio, Chihuahua. strain tracing descent from the Spanish miners Other villages of the river gorges and the of the old reales of the sierra and retains little smaller ranehes are today purely mestizo except of the Indian. In 1955 a single immigrant family for a rare family of Indians living among the of Tarahumaras occupied La Laguna, a nearby rancheros. These Indians are Pimas or members ranch. Onapa and Guisamopa are mestizo, Guisa­ of the Sierra group. This is the case at Guadalupe, mapa being, however, a center of palm weavlllg Natora, Cham ada, Guisopa, Gocopa, Los Ocotes, and a comparatively new town. and Tunapa. Rancho Teopari, site of a former Jova mission, was not visited, but its present THE SIERRA EAST OF THE owners state that the population is now purely V ALLEY OF SAHUARIPA mestizo. The Jovas apparently are gone. At THIS ROAD LESS mountain area stretehing east Tarachi a generation ago there was a group of from the Sahuaripa River into Chihuahua was the people called Indians living in an adjoining home of the Jovas in contact days and was largely settlement. These were popularly called the depopulated during the intense Apache troubles "Tromperos" and had marriage affiliation with of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Ponida. They were very probably the descendants The area has now been reoccupied, largely by of the Java population of Tarachi. These people people from the valley of Sahuaripa. This region seem to have disappeared as a separate group, 24 SONORAN SURVEY although a few families of Tarachi are descended nearby ranches is much in the minority, probably from them and other descendants are in the being from five to ten percent. Here, as among Ciudad Obregon area. Tarachi as a whole is over­ most Opata descendants of Sonora, there is much whelmingly non-Indian. East of this area, in intergrading between indito and families of "el Chihuahua, knowledge and memories of the tipo mexicano." Opatas and Jovas disappear, being replaced by Nacori Chico, reported as an Opata and Java those of the Tarahumaras and Pimas. town in Spanish records (Ocaranza 1937, Vol. 2: 98), is a settlement largely of blancos and far THE GRANADOS VALLEY AND removed from Indian mestizos who have their THE BACADEHUACHI AREA origin in the valley of Sahuaripa. There remain, in addition, twelve families of pronounced Indian MODERN GRANADOS and Huasabas are al­ physical type living in a group of adjacent casas most completely mestizoized and, though recog­ de dos naves on the outskirts of Nacori Chico. nizing partial descent from the Opatas, little These people are the poorest people of the town remains of either inditos or their distinguishing and do most of the palm work. The non-indito traits. Bacadehuachi, an ancient Opata village, is population of Nacori Chico recognizes these fam­ today a town predominantly of mestizos who have ilies only as poor people, not as Indians; however, lost their Opata classification, plus a large number questioning revealed that they are descended from of blanco families. There are, in addition, a num­ the natives of the area, some of whom had a ber of families of slightly modified Indian physical speaking knowledge of Opata within the memory type who live scattered among the rest of the of living members of this group. Some four miles population and on some of the nearby ranches. south of Nacori Chico at Sauz, a village of around These are called inditos and Opatas, and they do 200, there is one family of inditos. A mile south much of the palm weaving of the district. Old of Sauz is a settlement of casas de dos naves informants of this group claim their parents had called Buena Vista, and a mile or so south of some knowledge of the Opata language, but it here is a rancheria called Taruachi. The popula­ has been dead in the area at least a generation. tions of Buena Vista and Taruachi, about fifteen The indito population of Bacadehuachi and families, are all inditos and are so called by their

FIG. 8. GIRLS IN FRONT OF A HUUKI. TEPUPA. MODERN DISTRIBUTION 25 neighbors. Buena Vista is a center of palm weav­ [ was told that there are several families of this ing. Oral tradition has it that these people arc tribe centering at the ranch of Tomechopa. descended from Opata and Java refugees from The small band of Apaches which ranged the old towns of Mochopa, Setachi and Servas the sierra east of Nacori Chico until some twenty which were destroyed by Apaches in the mid­ to twenty-five years ago is now evidently com­ eighteenth century. pletely extinct, being exterminated by local There are a few other ranches in the sierra ranchers in reprisal for the kidnaping of a child east of Nacori Chico on which there may be and the killing of mule drivers. The area they indita families. Inquiry revealed. however, that ranged has since been occupied by ranches. Two most of the population of these ranches. and of or three Apache captives from this group can Nopalera particularly, have their origin in Chi­ still be found living among the Mexicans of huahua. Certainly the population is predominantly Sonora and Chihuahua. non-Indian. In Chihuahua, east of the sierra of Nacori, The upper Bavispe valley with the old Opata Opata memories disappear. villages of Oputo, Bavispe, Bacerac and Huachi­ The preceding roughly outlines the commu­ nera was not visited but numerous informants nities inhabited by Opata and Jova descendants describe them as having many indios opatas. The today. Though, of course, it is subject to error writer was given the names of numerous old and a few rancher/as of inditos may have been Indians in these towns who were described as missed completely. I believe that it is a fairly indios crudos. H uachinera especially is pointed complete coverage of the area. It does not take out as a town with heavy Opata memories and into account, however, the considerable migra­ large indita popUlation. There is in addition a tion of Opata descendants to other parts of Sonora small but undetermined number of Kickapoos and to the United States, a movement which has living in the Bavispe valley. These are described been taking place for generations. There is every by neighboring ranchers as still speaking their indication that most inditos, when they leave this own language and remaining a separate group. area, rapidly lose their identity as Indians.

FIG. 9. MILLING WHEAT AT RANCHO TARUACHI. 4 THE LOWER PIMAS

THE LOWER PIMAS, or Pima Bajos, classified prefer to be called Pimas. When speaking Spanish, by Sauer into three groups, the Ures of the lower the Nebomes often call themselves poblanos and Sonora River, the Nebomes of the lower Matape the Yecoras call themselves paisanos. The terms and middle Yaqui River valleys, the Yecoras of Nebome and Yecora are not known. In their own the Sierra Madre (Sauer 1934: 3), were exposed language Lower Pimas call themselves O-o-dam. to the same intensive mission influences as were The Pimas have retained a greater degree of the Opatas. The first Jesuit mission at Onabas physical differentiation from the non-Indians than among the Nebomes was probably established in have the Opatas. The great majority of the moun­ 1621 (Bannon 1955: 32). Both they and the tain Pimas show little or no Caucasian mixture. Ures were converted soon after. The Yecoras Consequently in these areas there is a definite were not completely Christianized until later in and unmistakable line of physical demarkation the century. The Lower Pimas, however, accepted between the Indians and genIe de razon. the padres with considerably less enthusiasm than did their Opata neighbors. Mission accounts speak THE URES disparagingly of their lack of industry, devotion THE URES AREA of the middle Sonora River to drunkenness, and indifference to Christianity. and surrounding ranches and rancherias has a The Nebomes joined the Seris in several revolts popUlation containing numerous families who are in the eighteenth century. Possibly as a result of still called Pimas and who are still Indians phys­ this greater resistance to assimilation, they have ically. Probably there are between 200 and 250 survived as separate ethnic groups to a much of these people. From the available information greater extent than have the Opatas. it appears that these Pimas are going the way Of the three groups of Lower Pimas defined of the Opatas and that their situation is roughly by Sauer, two, the Nebomes and the Yecoras, similar. Although the Pima language was spoken retain their language and remain distinct ethnic by the old people within the last twenty years, entities. As the present situation differs among it may now be gone as the young have not the various Pima divisions, they will here be learned it. The Onabas Pimas tell of a settlement treated separately. called Bahui a mile from Ures where they used I visited the Nebomes at Onabas on two to visit Pimas who spoke their language; this occasions and spent seven days with them. The was some thirty years ago. It was mentioned by Yecoras or mountain Pimas were visited more the Onabas group that most of the Ures Pimas now briefly, as was another Pima group to the north retain the "color" of Pimas, nothing else. A few at La Junta, Chihuahua. The Ures Pimas were additional Pima descendants are mentioned by not contacted personally; information concern­ the Sonorans as living around San Miguel de ing them comes from casual observations around Horcasitas. I did not visit this town. Ures and talks with non-Pimas from Ures and with Onabas Pimas. Thus, data dealing with this group was of necessity superficial. THE NEBOMES Among the Pimas as a whole the writer noted AT ONABAS on the lower Yaqui River is found a much greater degree of ethnic awareness and the largest concentration of the remnants of the a pride of identity largely lacking among the Nebomes. There are 125 living members of this Opatas. The Pimas are proud of their origin and group, 62 of whom are assertedly unmixed. THE LOWER PIMAS 27

The others in Onabas are mestizo children and speakers among the Onabas Nebomes now living grandchildren of the "full-blooded" Pimas. About in other towns. Most younger members of the half the total population of these Onabas Indians group understand, but none speaks, "fa lengua." now lives around Hermosillo and Ciudad Obregon, While the Nebomes call themselves O-o-dam, the or is scattered through other towns of Sonora mountain Pi mas, i.e., the Yecoras, with whom with only eight families remaining at Onabas. they have little if any contact, they call the They are still a separate ethnic unit, however, Tadmar O-a-dam or "Tarahumara people," referr­ and even the first generation mestizos consider ing to their location near the Tarahumaras. The and call themselves Pimas. This is perhaps the Opatas they call Oob. Non-Indians for whom, result of the special status these people enjoy in when speaking Spanish, they use the Yaqui word that all members of the tribe are equal owners vari, blanco, or the old Spanish gente de razon, of the extensive community lands of Onabas. The the Pimas call Du-kahm. present town of Onabas has several hundred non­ The older Indians of Onabas have a wealth Indian inhabitants, many of whom rent land from of memories of Pima culture as it was before the the Pimas. The Indians live in scattered jacales revolution when the Pima population of Onabas and casas de dos naves on the eastern outskirts dwindled. Most of this is now gone. However, of the village. Although the Pimas own most of a folk Catholic ceremonial calendar is still car­ the agricultural and grazing land around Onabas, ried on by the Indians in their ancient mission they lack the means to work it effectively and church. The fiesta of San Francisco is celebrated now exist in poverty, living from the rent for their on the 4th of October, as it is in the other Pima land, palm work, and wage work for non-Indians. settlements of Sonora. An image of this saint is At present, the "jete del ejido" serves as the kept in the church. A few years ago the venado, Pima governor. This man is elected from among pascola and matachin dances were performed on the Indians each three years by the Pima owners el dia de San Francisco. Now only a devotion is of ejido. The Pimas, nonetheless, also take part performed. Other feast days are still observed, in the voting for the presidente municipal of the even if in abbreviated form. The church at town of Onabas who in 1955 was a non-Indian. Onabas is cared for and most ceremonies super­ Some eight elderly people at Onabas still vised by the Pimas although the non-Indian pop­ speak the Pima language. There are other Pima ulation participates to some degree.

FIG. 10. PIMA FAMILY FROM MAICOBA, AT YECORA. 28 SONORAN SURVEY

FIG. 1 I. PIMA DWELLING. YECORA.

The future of this group is easily forseen in traces of cuitural differentiation. During the last the fact that only one family of the younger gen­ generation, many of these families have moved eration living at Onabas are full Pimas. The north to Hermosillo. others will probably rapidly lose their identity when the older generation is gone. THE YECORAS The Onabas Pimas deny the existence of any people still classed as Pimas in the former Pima THE YECORAS, today known as the Pimas of towns of Movas and Nuri on the Rio Chico to Maicoba, are the largest and most distinct of the the south. Nuri is mentioned by Ocaranza (1937) remaining remnants of the Lower Pimas. These as having a mixed population of lovas, Opatas, people, numbering perhaps a thousand, live in the and Pi mas at the end of the eighteenth century. mountains around Maicoba, a town which serves Today there are Indian families on the outskirts them as a ceremonial center. Here their patron who apparently have forgotten their origin. The saint, again San Francisco, is housed and here old Pima village of Cumuripa, to the south down the annual fiestas in honor of this saint are held. the Yaqui River, has been nearly destroyed by The mountain Pimas all speak their own lan­ the Oviachic reservoir and the population re­ guage, which they say is a different dialect from settled. New Cumuripa has one family of Onabas that of the Nebomes, and ordinarily they do not Pi mas, apparently no others. I was able to visit inter-marry with the mestizo population. Families Nuri and to confirm this. The Rio Chico-La Dura and rancherias of these Pimas are scattered area south of Onabas yielded no Indians. throughout the sierra surrounding Maicoba, and The dry sparsely settled cattle country south­ they extend a short but undetermined distance east of Hermosillo had Pima speaking inhabitants into Chihuahua where they border on territory a generation ago. San Marcial in the lower Matape occupied by the Tarahumaras and Varohios. Valley and the old Nebome mission settlements These Pimas are subsistence agriculturalists and of San lose de los Pimas, Tecoripa, and Suaqui have a few cattle. Many of them migrate annually Grande at present have no Pimas except for a to the mountain towns such as Yecora and Ber­ few families of inditos who work on surrounding mudez or to lowland towns such as Nuri to work ranches and who appear to be abandoning the last for wages and sell palm leaf and basketry. Crop THE LOWER PIMAS 29

failures and competition for their land in the the outside and who has no actual following or last fifteen years have forced many of these people power among the Indians themselves. to the Ciudad Obregon agricultural and industrial The town of Yecora itself today is almost area where some twenty families now live the completely non-Indian, having only one perma­ year around. nent Pima family and temporary Indian visitors Superficially at least, the life of these people who have their homes farther east in the sierra. seems much more akin to that of the neighboring Another group of Pimas, which is probably Tarahumaras and Varohios than to that of the an offshoot of the Maicoba group, is located in lowland Pimas. Material culture appears similar the gorge of the Rio Aros at the rancheria of to that described by Bennett and Zingg for the La Junta and on the adjoining Mesa Blanca north­ Tarahumaras (Bennett and Zingg 1935: part 1). west of Dolores, Chihuahua. These people, num­ The Maicoba Pimas today wear conventional bering about thirty families, are reported by old Mexican dress and the men wear their hair short. people in the area to have come here from Mai­ The only distinct touch is an occasional pair of cob a several generations ago. They survive as a one-string huaraches worn by the men. The distinct entity both physically and socially, using women are palm workers, using essentially the their own language as well as Spanish and carry­ same basket forms and the same techniques as ing on their own folk Catholic fiestas. A few do the Opatas and Onabas Pimas. The weaving members of this group were contacted, but lack house or huuki is employed. Dwellings may be of time and their extreme shyness prevented any caves, peaked jacales of perpendicular pine but superficial observation. Those seen exhibited trunks, or adobe and thatch houses. no signs of Caucasian admixture. They live in Little is known of Yecora non-material cul­ both palm leaf jacales and in caves. ture. A ceremonial calendar climaxing in the fiesta The number of families known as the of San Francisco exists. A great emphasis on "Sierras," referred to in regard to the mountains compadrazgo (ritual kinship based on godparent­ east of Sahuaripa, may be an extension of this hood) is attributed to the Pimas by their neigh­ Mesa Blanca group. The few Sierras seen by bors. Shamans are reported. the writer, however, appeared both more mixed These Pimas have a native gobernador who, physically and culturally more Mexicanized than however, apparently holds an office imposed from did the Mesa Blanca people.

FIG. 12. PIMAS. ONABAS. 30 CONCLUSIONS

IT IS CLEAR that the three groups considered tural differentiation. Taking into account the are no longer tribal Indians, but instead represent differing time element, it would appear that while varying degrees of the assimilation of the Spanish Indians in Anglo-America may cling to portions colonial Indian into modern Mexico. The Opatas of their old non-material culture as a defense and lavas together with some of the Lower Pimas against rejection by the dominant group, the are merely the physical residue of the aboriginal Sonoran Indian has evidently been able to achieve population of eastern Sonora, retaining a few integration with Mexican society as soon as Indian slight traces of both Spanish mission and probable patterns are dropped, with greater incentive to­ aboriginal culture and being in most respects well ward assimilation (Broom, Kitsuse 1955: 44-48). integrated members of rural Sonoran society. The The Opatas, lavas and Lower Pimas have in remnant Pimas of Onabas and especially the addition been able to avoid the tightly closed mountain Pimas consider themselves, and in societies which have perpetuated the "corporate" actuality are, still separate ethnic entities, preserv­ Indian villages of Middle America. This is appar­ ing to a certain extent the same mission period ently due to the fact that the system of civil and culture that the Opatas have abandoned in the religious community offices introduced by the last hundred years. 1esuits (Johnson 1950: 42-43), which insulated Spicer, in his examination of adjustments to the Indian from direct contacts with outsiders contact in the Southwest, tentatively places the and has been a major factor in the continuance of Opatas in the category of a group which has the corporate pueblos of Middle America, fast undergone complete cultural assimilation, while crumbled away when the direction of the mis­ the Cahitas, he believes, present a cultural fusion sionaries was withdrawn. of Spanish and native elements with the probable Another difference from Middle America is retention of much of the original orientation seen in the fact that the Pima and Opata villages (Spicer 1954: 663-678). I am essentially in were small in population compared with those of agreement with this categorization of the Opatas. the former area. In the late mission period, they However, it seems clear that though the basic seldom had more than 300 Indian inhabitants orientation of the Opatas and lavas may have and often had considerably less (Ocaranza 1937: shifted completely, some elements which have Vol 2). The arrival in such a community of any emerged point to a certain degree of fusion here number of outsiders with their subsequent mixed as well. Indeed, Ezell suggests in his analysis of offspring soon resulted in the Indians losing their Spicer's concept that divergent adjustments may superiority of numbers and finally becoming occur within a dominant pattern of over-all marginal inhabitants scattered on the outskirts of response (Ezell 1955: 18-19). Something of the the towns where they now await final assimilation, sort must certainly have taken place among the both cultural and physical. The survey of the area Opatas, lovas, and lowland Pimas where a ten­ shows this to be the case in nearly all of the Opata dency toward fusion is greatly overshadowed by colonial pueblos today. A few of the rancherias willingness to accept complete assimilation. Con­ and small villages, which for some reason never versely, the mountain Pimas possibly exemplify attracted large numbers of blancos and mestizos, a situation in which the trends toward assimilation are the contemporary pueblos de puros inditos. are subordinate to those resulting in fusion. In these a few traces of Opata culture were The amalgamation of these Sonoran peoples retained, although the language disappeared with with their neighbors displays certain contrasts with time. These few small settlements have survived the acculturation process which has taken place until the present when the lack of a firm economic among related groups in the Southwest and among base (except in the case of Tepupa) and the the Indians of southern Mexico. In Sonora, among rising incentives for migration to newly developed the Opatas especially, one is impressed by the agricultural and industrial areas of coastal Sonora apparent ready abandonment of all traces of cul- make their continued existence extremely unlikely. REFERENCES 31

BANDELIER, A. F. 1890 Final Report of rnvestigations among the Indians of the Southwestern United States, Carried on Mainly in the Years from 1880-1885. Papers of the Archaeological Institute of America, American Series, Vols. 3, 4. Cambridge.

BANNON, J. F. 1955 The Mission Frontier in Sonora, 1620-1687. United States Catholic Historical Society, Monograph Series, 26. New York.

BEALS, RALPH 1932 The Comparative Ethnology of Northern Mexico before 1750. Ibero-Americana: 2. Uni­ versity of California Press, Berkeley.

BENNETT, W. C. AND ROBERT ZINGG 1935 The Tarahumara, an Indian Tribe of Northern Mexico. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

BROOM, LEONARD AND JOHN KITSUSE 1955 The Validation of Acculturation: A Condition to Ethnic Assimilation. American Anthro­ pologist, Vol. 57, No.1, pp. 44-48. Menasha.

EZELL, PAUL 1955 The Hispanic Acculturation of the Gila River Pimas. MS, doctoral dissertation, The University of Arizona, Tucson.

GUITERAS, EUSEBIO (TRANSLATOR) 195 I Rudo Ensayo, by an unknown fesuit Padre, 1763. Arizona Silhouettes, Tucson.

HINTON, THOMAS 1955 Field Notes, on file at Department of Anthropology, The University of Arizona, Tucson.

HRDLICKA, ALES 1904 Notes on the Indians of Sonora. American Anthropologist, Vol. 6, No.1, pp. 51-89. Menasha.

JOHNSON, J. B. 1950 The Opata, an Inland Tribe of Sonora. University of New Mexico Publications in Anthro­ pology, No.6. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

KROEBER, A. L. 1934 Uto-Aztecan Languages of Mexico. Ibero-Americana: 8. University of California Press.

LA FARGE, OLIVER 1940 Maya Ethnology: The Sequences of Cultures. In The Maya and Their Neighbors, pp. 281-291. D. Appleton-Century Company, New York. 32 SONORAN SURVEY

LUMHOL TZ, CARL 1902 Unknown Mexico. 2 vols. C. Scribner's Sons, New York.

OCARANZA, FERNANDO 1933 Los franciscanos en las provincias internas de Sonora y Ostimuri. Mexico. 1937 Cronicas y relaciones del occidente de Mexico. Antigua Libreria Robredo, Mexico.

SAUER, CARL 1934 The Distribution of Aboriginal Tribes and Languages in Northwestern Mexico. Ibero­ Americana: 5. University of California Press. Berkeley. 1935 Aboriginal Population of Northwestern Mexico. [bero-Americana: 10. University of California Press, Berkeley.

SPICER, E. H. 1954 Spanish-Indian Acculturation in the Southwest. American Anthropologist, Vol. 56, No.4, pp. 663-684. Menasha.

TORRE, VILLAR, ERNESTO DE LA 1953 Las notas sobre Sonora del Capitan Guillet, 1864-1866. Yan, No.1, pp. 46-59. Mexico.

TREUTLEIN, THEODORE (EDITOR AND TRANSLATOR) 1949 Sonora, A Description of the Province, by 19naz Pfefferkorn. Coronado Cuarto Centennial Publications, Vol. 12. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

VILLA, EDUARDO 1951 Historia del estado de Sonora. Segunda Edici6n. Editorial Sonora, Hermosillo.

WAGLEY, CHARLES AND MARVIN HARRIS 1955 A Typology of Latin American Subcultures. American Anthropologist, Vol. 57, No.3, pp. 428-451. Menasha.