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 01/10/2021 20:15:33 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- , -/" +-,, '"~\ "'," ,. ,\ ",", <l: BACERAC ';." lA~NERA:::>". 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.