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The Yaqui are a Native American people who live
in region comprising the northern Mexican state of Sonora and the southwestern U.S. state of Arizona.
Lifestyle of the Yaqui
In the past, the Yaqui subsisted on agriculture, growing corn, beans and squash (like many of the natives of the region). They
also made cotton products.
The Yaqui have always been skillful warriors.
History of the Yaqui
Throughout their history, they remained independent of the Aztec and Toltec empires, perhaps because of their remote northern locale. They were similarly never
conquered by the Spanish, defeating successive expeditions of conquistadores in battle. However, they were successfully converted to Christianity by the Jesuits, who convinced them to settle into eight towns: Potam, Vicam, Torim, Bacum, Cocorit, Huirivis, Belem, 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 colonial Mexican 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.
The Yaqui attempted to form an independent nation separate from Mexico in the 1820s, under the Yaqui leader Juan Banderas, 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 Cajeme. Following this war, the Yaqui were subjected to further brutality under the regime of Porfirio Díaz, 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 Yucatán peninsula, where they were sold as
slaves and worked on plantations; many of these slaves died of the brutal working conditions. Many Yaqui fled to the United
States to escape this persecution.
Yaqui is also the name of the language of the Yaqui people, and the name of a river that flows through
Sonora. See: Yaqui language
and Río Yaqui.
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