Information AboutYaqui |
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The "Yoeme" or 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 . 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. 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 corn, beans and squash (like many of the natives of the region). They also made Cotton products. The Yaqui have always been skillful warriors. Don Juan Matus , the Mystic teacher appearing in a series of books by Carlos Castaneda , was described as Yaqui Indian. However, critics have raised the question of whether Juan Matus was a real person or a fictional character, and any connection between actual Yaqui religious practices and those written about by Castaneda are controversial at the least. 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 Franciscan missionaries) relies upon song, music, and dancing, all performed by designated members of the community. There are also other, Catholic, practices that are seamlessly woven into the old ways. The Yaqui Deer Song (''maso bwikam'') accompanies the Deer Dance which is performed by a pascola 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 durimg Lent and Easter . The Yaqui deer song ritual is in many ways similar to the deer song rituals of neighboring Uto-Aztecan peoples such as the Tohono O'odham and Mayo . 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 cultus. According to Yaqui teachings, flowers sprang up from the drops of blood that were shed at the Crucifixion . Flowers are viewed as the manifestation of souls, to the point that occasionally Yaqui males may greet a close male friend with the phrase "Haisa sewa?" ("How is the flower?"). 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 Conquistador es in battle. However, they were successfully Converted To Christianity by the Jesuit s, who convinced them to settle into eight towns: Pótam, Vícam, Tórim, Bácum, Cóorit, 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 (executed 1833) who wished to unite the Mayo , Opata , and Pima tribes, 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 Cajemé . 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. Today, the Mexican municipality of Cajeme is named after the fallen Yaqui leader. Yaquis in the United States In 1964, Yaquis received 202 acres (817,000 m²) of land from the U.S. Federal Government near Tucson, Arizona . Formal recognition of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe 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 is that there were small Yaqui settlements even earlier. The town of Tubac , Arizona had Yaquis in its Spanish garrison. Some Yaquis continued with the Spaniards as far as the Pacific coast during the development of the network of Spanish Missions . Several communities of Yaqui have existed in Arizona since the mid-1800's: 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); Marana and Guadelupe have had continuous settlements of Yaqui. In the late 1960's, 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 6,000 and is the center of administration for the Tribe. Most of the middle-age population of New Pascua is bilingual in English and Spanish, with some knowledge of Yaqui. 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, Arizona and settled in a neighborhood named after Our Lady Of Guadalupe . The town incorporated on 1979 as Guadalupe, Arizona . Now more than 44 percent of the town's ethnic make up is still Native American and many of them trilingual in Yaqui, English and Spanish languages. External links
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