Acaxee

Acaxee

Acaxee territory circa 1500
Total population
Extinct
Regions with significant populations
Mexico (Sinaloa and Durango)
Languages
Acaxee language and Spanish
Religion
Acaxee mythology and Animism
Related ethnic groups
Xiximes, 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]

History

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]

Culture

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]

Subdivisions

• Acaxee (proper)
• Sabaibo
• Tebaca
• Papudo
• Tecaya

See also

• Xiximes

Notes

1. Barnes, Thomas C.; Naylor, Thomas H.; Polzer, Charles W. Northern New Spain: A Research Guide. University of Arizona. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
2. Alternate spellings include: Acage, Acagee, Acaje, Acajee, Acaxe. ^[1]
3. "Indians.org :: Indian Population of Mexico". Archived from the original on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 2011-02-01., accessed 1 Feb 2011
4. "Indigenous Sinaloa: From the Colonial Period to the Present (Part 2)". Indigenous Mexico. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
5. Jose Gabriel Martinez-Serna (2009). Vineyards in the Desert: The Jesuits and the Rise and Decline of an Indian Town in New Spain's Northeastern Borderlands. Southern Methodist University. pp. 25–. ISBN   978-1-109-16040-6 . Retrieved 28 October 2012.
6. Kelley, J. Charles. "The Known Archaeological Ballcourts of Durange and Zacatecas, Mexico" in Vernon Scarborough, David R. Wilcox (Eds.): The Mesoamerican Ballgame. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press. ISBN   0-8165-1360-0, 1991, p. 98. Kelley quotes Beals: Beals, Ralph J. The Acaxe, A Mountain Tribe of Durango and Sinaloa (Iberoamerican 6) University of California Press, Berkeley: 1933.

References

• Beals, Ralph L. 1933. The Acaxee: a Mountain Tribe of Durango and Sinaloa.

Further reading

• Deeds, Susan. Defiance and Deference in Mexico's Colonial North: Indians Under Spanish Rule in Nueva Vizcaya. (2003) University of Texas Press, Austin, TX. ISBN   0-292-70551-4