Total population | |
---|---|
Extinct | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Mexico (Sinaloa and Durango) | |
Languages | |
Acaxee language and Spanish | |
Religion | |
Acaxee mythology and Animism | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Xiximec, Achires, Tarahumara, Tepehuanes, and Cahita |
The Acaxee or Acaxees [2] were a tribe or group of tribes in the Sierra Madre Occidental in eastern Sinaloa and NW Durango. They spoke a Taracahitic language in the Southern Uto-Aztecan language family. Their culture was based on horticulture and the exploitation of wild animal and plant life. They no longer exist as an identifiable ethnic group. [3]
Before Spanish Colonization, the population of the Acaxee was roughly 20,000 organized into many smaller independent chiefdoms. They lived in very low-density farms with homes separated by up to half a kilometer. [4] Early accounts by Jesuit missionaries allege continual warfare and cannibalism among the Acaxee, Tepehuan, and Xixime who inhabited Nueva Vizcaya. [5]
The Spanish conquered Sinaloa from 1529 to 1531 which included conquering the Acaxee. They were devastated by Spanish introduced diseases and the encomienda system. [4] In December 1601, the Acaxees, under the direction of an elder named Perico, began an uprising against Spanish rule. This revolt was called the Acaxee Rebellion. And eventually ended in a defeat of the Acaxee. [5]
They are said to have been converted to the Catholic faith by the society of Jesuits in 1602. [5] Over the centuries of Spanish rule, the Acaxee were gradually assimilated into Mexican society, and while no longer a separate ethnic group, many in Sinaloa are descendants of the Acaxee. [4]
Ethnographer Ralph Beals reported in the early 1930s that the Acaxee played a ball game called "vatey [or] batey" on "a small plaza, very flat, with walls at the sides". [6]
Durango, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Durango, is one of the 31 states which make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico, situated in the northwest portion of the country. With a population of 1,832,650, the 8th lowest of Mexico's states, Durango has Mexico's second-lowest population density, after Baja California Sur. The capital city, Victoria de Durango, is named after the first President of Mexico, Guadalupe Victoria.
Sinaloa, officially the Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, compose the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 18 municipalities, and its capital city is Culiacán Rosales.
The Yaqui, Hiaki, or Yoeme, are an Indigenous people of Mexico and Native American tribe, who speak the Yaqui language, a Uto-Aztecan language.
The Pimería Alta was an area of the 18th century Sonora y Sinaloa Province in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, that encompassed parts of what are today southern Arizona in the United States and northern Sonora in Mexico.
Batéy was the name given to a special plaza around which the Caribbean Taino built their settlements. It was usually a rectangular area surrounded by stones with carved symbols (petroglyphs).
The Tlaxcallans, or Tlaxcaltecs, are an indigenous Nahua people who originate from Tlaxcala, Mexico. The Confederacy of Tlaxcala was instrumental in overthrowing the Aztec Empire in 1521, alongside conquistadors from the Kingdom of Spain. The Tlaxcallans remained allies of the Spanish for 300 years until the Independence of Mexico in 1821.
The Tepehuán are an indigenous people of Mexico. They live in Northwestern, Western, and some parts of North-Central Mexico. The indigenous Tepehuán language has three branches: Northern Tepehuan, Southeastern Tepehuan, Southwestern Tepehuan. The heart of the Tepehuan territory is in the Valley of Guadiana in Durango, but they eventually expanded into southern Chihuahua, eastern Sinaloa, and northern Jalisco, Nayarit, and Zacatecas. By the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, Tepehuan lands spanned a large territory along the Sierra Madre Occidental. Tepehuán groups are divided into the Ódami, Audam, and O'dam, each with their own language, culture, and beliefs.
Nueva Vizcaya was the first province in the north of New Spain to be explored and settled by the Spanish. It consisted mostly of the area which is today the states of Chihuahua and Durango and the southwest of Coahuila in Mexico as well as parts of Texas in the United States.
The Spanish missions in Mexico are a series of religious outposts established by Spanish Catholic Franciscans, Jesuits, Augustinians, and Dominicans to spread the Christian doctrine among the local natives. Since 1493, the Kingdom of Spain had maintained a number of missions throughout Nueva España in order to preach the gospel to these lands. In 1533, at the request of Hernán Cortés, Carlos V sent the first Franciscan friars with orders to establish a series of installations throughout the country.
Arizpe is a small town and the municipal seat of the Arizpe Municipality in the north of the Mexican state of Sonora. It is located at 30°20'"N 110°09'"W. The area of the municipality is 2,806.78 sq.km. The population in 2005 was 2,959 of which 1,743 lived in the municipal seat as of the 2000 census.
Francisco de Ibarra was a Spanish-Basque explorer, founder of the city of Durango, and governor of the Spanish province of Nueva Vizcaya, in present-day Durango and Chihuahua.
Tamazula de Victoria is a small town and seat of the municipality of Tamazula in the Mexican state of Durango. The town is located approximately 53 mi (85 km) east of the city center of Culiacán, Sinaloa, in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains. The Tamazula River crescents directly north of the city.
The Tepehuán Revolt broke out in New Spain in 1616 when the indigenous Tepehuán attempted to break free from Spanish rule. The revolt was crushed by 1620 after a large loss of life on both sides.
The Provincias Internas, also known as the Comandancia y Capitanía General de las Provincias Internas, was an administrative district of the Spanish Empire created in 1776 to provide more autonomy for the frontier provinces of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, present-day northern Mexico and the Southwestern United States. The goal of its creation was to establish a unified government in political, military and fiscal affairs. Nevertheless, the Commandancy General experienced significant changes in its administration because of experimentation to find the best government for the frontier region as well as bureaucratic in-fighting. Its creation was part of the Bourbon Reforms and was part of an effort to invigorate economic and population growth in the region to stave off encroachment on the region by foreign powers. During its existence, the Commandancy General encompassed the provinces of New Navarre, New Biscay, The Californias, New Mexico, New Santander, New Kingdom of Leon, Coahuila and Texas.
Otáez is a town and seat of the municipality of Otáez, in the state of Durango, north-western Mexico. As of 2010, the town had a population of 871.
Municipality of Badiraguato is a municipality in the Mexican state of Sinaloa in northwestern Mexico. The seat of the municipality is in the small town of Badiraguato.
La Ferrería is an archaeological site located 7 kilometers south of the city of Durango, in the Mexican state of Durango, at the “Cerro de La Ferrería”, on the side of the Tunal River.
The Acaxee Rebellion was an insurrection against Spanish rule in Mexico by Acaxee Indians, in 1601. The Acaxee attempted to expel the Spanish from their lands, regain their independence, and retain their traditional culture which was threatened by forced labor and Jesuit missionaries imposed upon them by the Spanish. They killed about 50 Spaniards and shut down silver mining operations in their territory for two years. In 1603, a Spanish army with Indian allies defeated the Acaxee and captured and executed most of their leaders. Subsequent smallpox epidemics killed most of the surviving Acaxee.
The Xixime were an indigenous people who inhabited a portion of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains in the present day states of Durango and Sinaloa, Mexico. The Xixime are noted for their reported practice of cannibalism and resistance to Spanish colonization in the form of the Xixime Rebellion of 1610.