Twilight of the Mission Frontier

Shifting Interethnic Alliances and Social Organization in Sonora, 1768–1855

By José Refugio de la Torre Curiel

Stanford University Press

Copyright © 2012 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8047-8504-4

Contents

List of Illustrations………………………………………………ixAbbreviations……………………………………………………..xiAcknowledgments……………………………………………………xiiiIntroduction………………………………………………………xvChapter 1. Representing the Sonoran Landscape: Geographical Descriptions
of Sonora in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries…………………..1Chapter 2. Population Trends in the Mission Districts of Sonora…………49Chapter 3. Changes in the Lifeways of Indian Towns…………………….77Chapter 4. Sonora’s Frontier Economy in the Late Colonial Period: A
Captive Trade Network………………………………………………145Chapter 5. Local Adaptations of the Franciscan Mission Regime…………..187Chapter 6. Leaving Sonora…………………………………………..243Conclusions……………………………………………………….267Glossary………………………………………………………….275Bibliography………………………………………………………279Index…………………………………………………………….303

CHAPTER 1

Representing the Sonoran Landscape:Geographical Descriptions of Sonora in theEighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

In northwestern Mexico, between 27 and 33 degrees north latitude and 113and 108 degrees longitude, a number of mountain ranges are covered withthin layers of snow in winter. Amid these cordilleras, streams and rivers have cuta series of fertile valleys of varying dimensions along the way to the Gulf ofCalifornia. Then, beyond the foothills and descending toward the northeast, isthe majestic and daunting desert.

Comprising the modern state of Sonora and southern Arizona, this areacorresponds to what was known in the eighteenth and part of the nineteenthcenturies as the provinces of Ostimuri and Sonora, which belonged to theGobernación de Sonora. Located in the southeastern portion of what is nowSonora, the province of Ostimuri occupied the territory bordered to the northby the Yaqui River, to the south by the Mayo River and to the west by the SierraMadre. It was in the southwestern section of the present state of Sonora, alongthe lower course of the Yaqui River, that the Yoeme (Yaqui) people lived, agroup of cultivators who had successfully rebuffed the Spanish military advancein the sixteenth century and by the early seventeenth century determined theway in which the Jesuit missionaries would be admitted into their territory.Beyond the Yaqui River lay the vast expanse of the province of Sonora, borderedon the north by the Pima, Pápago, Cocomaricopa, and Yuma Indiannations inhabiting the alluvial plains of the Gila and the Colorado Rivers.

The southern limit of the province was clearly defined with the Yaqui Riverbeing recognized as a natural border, although during the colonial period therewere different versions and conflicting opinions as to the exact location of thenorthern frontier of Sonora. Some people held that the province ended withthe missions in Pimería Alta, while others argued that the territory included thesettlements along the banks of the Gila River.

On the basis of this territory’s characteristics, we can speak of two largegeographical zones and five ecological niches north of the Yaqui River. Usinga south–north division, to the west lies the arid zone of the desert composedof the Gulf Coast and the Lower Colorado Valley, and to the east, there is asecond zone composed of the sierra, the Sonoran plains, and the Arizona highlands(or altiplano). In the following and later chapters, descriptions focus onthe three latter areas.

The San Miguel, the Sonora, and the Oposura Rivers all descend from theSierra Madre in Sonora to irrigate the Tacupeto, Mátape, and Oposura valleys,among others, during the rainy season. These rivers mark the transition fromthe region dominated by valleys to the foothills. In the valleys, the annual precipitationof 400 millimeters (15.8 inches) makes rain-fed agriculture possible;these conditions made the plains of Sonora the main site for the establishmentof Spanish settlements in that region in the colonial period.

To the east of this river system, precipitation increases along with the elevationof the sierra, attaining a maximum of 600 millimeters (23.6 inches) inthe highest places. In some places, such as Bacadehuachi in the easternmostpart of Sonora, the sierra attains an altitude of 2,500 meters (8,200 feet) abovesea level. In this forested zone, pasturelands are more abundant, and pine, oak,and poplar trees, as well as shrubs typical of temperate to cold climates arecommon. The variety of local fauna, including such species as deer, squirrel,rabbit, beaver, and bear, contributes to the richness of this biotic community.

Located at the northwestern edge of the Sonoran desert, the Arizona highlandsoffer a succession of streams and marshlands that allowed both theindigenous population and Spanish settlers to develop subsistence agriculture,despite the significant inconvenience of the region’s freezing temperatures,which do not occur in other areas of the province.

The Lower Colorado Valley is the most arid, desert-like region of the areaunder study. Its most important features are the Altar Desert and the lowlandsthat border the Colorado River. In this desert area, rainfall and temperaturesshow the most drastic variations in all of Sonora. Annual precipitation fluctuatesfrom 30 to 300 millimeters (1.2 to 11.8 inches), and temperatures are highduring the day but very low at night. In spite of these conditions, at certain timesit was possible to irrigate crops in the lowlands of the Altar River (Map 1.1).

A Note on the Identification of the Indian GroupsIn Sonora

A major problem posed by the geographic descriptions in the primarysources for this chapter is that European observers frequently misunderstoodthe spatial distribution of Indian groups and their ethnic affinities, whichexplains the plethora of names used to describe single groups such as the Pima(referred to as Gileños, Piatos, Soba, Sobaipuris, Pápagos, or Pimas Altos,depending on the location of their households). For clarity’s sake it is necessaryto explain the use of diverse tribal names in this work. Although some colonialmanuscripts identify as Nevomes the aboriginal inhabitants of the territorylocated between the western margins of the Yaqui River and Seri country in theproximities of the Gulf of California, this name disappears after 1680 and theIndian residents of the area are referred to simply as Pima Bajos; for this reason,the Indians of that zone are identified in this work as Pima Bajos, and their territoryis called Pimería Baja. Next to this area was the Ópata region or Opatería,the central and easternmost section of Sonora that was occupied by three separateyet closely related Indian groups (Ópatas, Eudeves, and Jovas) generallydescribed as Ópatas due to the marked affinity among their languages and culturaltraits. In this work, each individual group is mentioned using its ownname; with regard to their territory, I adhere to the traditional practice of callingthis area the “Opatería.”

The vast region north of Cucurpe and south of the Gila River was generallyidentified in colonial records as Pimería Alta, while the western section ofthis territory, near the point where the Colorado River joins the Gulf ofCalifornia, was called Papaguería. In both cases, the geographical regionsinvolved were named after the Indian groups that occupied them. In the strictsense, both Pima Altos and Pápagos were members of the same Indian nation(Pima) and shared certain cultural features (e.g., language and religiousviews), but were differentiated because of their adaptation to the ecologicalzones of the Gila River and the Arizona Desert, respectively. Since the late seventeenthcentury, the Jesuits, and at a later date the Franciscans, directed theirefforts to the Pima in the mission district of Pimería Alta. Pápago Indians visitedthe missions on a seasonal basis, but it was not until the late eighteenthcentury that the original Pima residents of the missions were replaced by thePápagos due to high mortality rates of the aboriginal Pima population in themission communities.

Since the mid-nineteenth century, and especially after the Gadsden Purchase(1853), the differences between these groups became accentuated due to theinfluence of two contrasting sets of neighbors. The territory of the Gila Riverpeople was on the route of gold prospectors, hunters, other groups of itinerantAmericans, and American soldiers fighting the Apaches, all of which led thePima population to adopt the language and other characteristics of Americansociety. The Pápagos remained culturally attached to the Altar Desert andclosely related to those of their kin living on the Mexican side of the border. Asone author puts it, the Gila River people “adopted American names and clothing,and in 1871 they already attended an American school. Meanwhile, thePápagos spoke Spanish if they had to speak a language other than theirs; theywore Mexican shawls, and considered the Altar Valley as the birthplace of theirculture.” In recent times, the Gila River people and the Pápagos have vindicatedthese historical processes by adopting official names consistent with them;thus, the former (historically identified as Pima Altos) refer to themselves as AkaiO’odham (River People), while the Pápagos call themselves Tohono O’odham(Desert People). Throughout this work, the names Pima Altos and Pápagos areused as is consistent with the historical records.

The Creation of Space

The purpose of discussing the different ecological niches in Sonora is notjust to present the setting in which the events analyzed in this study took place.As the title of this chapter suggests, narrated here is the story of a great transformation:the history of how, toward the end of the eighteenth century, theprovince of Sonora, an enormous expanse along the so-called “missionary frontier”of New Spain, became a zone distinguished by two contrasting landscapes—thedominions of the Spanish villas and ranches together with thetowns of the more Hispanicized Indian peoples, and, in the northern reaches,the series of “frontier missions.” In approaching this transformation from theperspective of territorial change, the purpose is to transcend the limits of classicgeographical description and consider the Sonora territory as a set of changingscenarios in which the relations between people and their environmentwere in a process of constant redefinition. This, in the words of EstebanBarragán, leads us to acknowledge that the “spatial forms and social structuresare amalgamated and changing: if the valorization of the elements—resources—containedin a geographical space change or are exhausted, thesocial structure, and the spatial valorization are transformed.”

However, comprehending the constant redefinition of the Sonoran scenerypresents the challenge of making sense out of the relationship between thelocation and the appropriation of a landscape, a relation that leads us to thedebate between “place” and “space.” In this attempt to capture the geographyof Sonora through the written testimonies of bishops, missionaries, and functionariesof the Spanish Crown, many questions arise as to the object representedin the sources and the personal situation of those witnesses who walkedupon the scenario described in their accounts. One recurring practice in theanalysis of these chronicles, reports, and memoirs consisted of thinking aboutthe territorial dimension as a multitude of independent fragments or as animperfect mold into which these several parts have been joined, although withoutever losing sight of the landscape itself as the setting of human events. It isimportant to separate the author’s personal view from the idea of places ascompartmentalized parts of space, and space as a frame containing networks ofplaces because, like J.B. Jackson and William Taylor, the author is rather moreinclined to approach the study of place and space by emphasizing the forms inwhich the interaction between people and environment is lived. It is this perspectivethat gives rise to the notion in which the landscape is seen as a consequenceof the interaction between subject and environment, as a result ofrepeated experiences, or as a creation of the senses. It is as a human constructand a product of personal experience with the environment that the landscapemust be understood, as W.J.T. Mitchell suggests, “not as an object to be seen,or a text to be read, but as a process by which social and subjective identitiesare formed.” In this spirit, the chronicles and reports concerning Sonoragathered together in this chapter are analyzed not only as discursive expressionsthat look to legitimize a given situation, but also as cultural practices containingindividuals’ ways of appropriating, creating, disarticulating, and characterizingSonora. In this respect, Sonora is here analyzed as an idea in transformationin order to explain why certain observers constructed their ideas about thisregion focusing on local people, settlements, or geography.

The interests and convictions of these documents’ authors determine thequality of the information presented and the choice of words and tonalities thatobscure or give color to their accounts. In this context, these sources do notallow a reliable reconstruction of the cultural expressions of those groups wholeft no written records concerning their past. Hence, in this section the historyof the Indians and the anonymous settlers of Sonora are not addressed. Theanalysis of complementary sources in later chapters will present a more completeframework of the participation of these groups in the transformation ofthe society of New Spain. Addressed here, in contrast, is the way in which theprejudices and personal affectations filling so many pages of reports and geographicaldescriptions can be used to document the discursive transformationof the “idea of Sonora.”

For ecclesiastical writers (in this case, bishops and Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries),as well as for the soldiers and officials of the Crown, Sonora meantdistinct realities over time, which can be seen in the various representations ofthat province penned by such a vast array of authors. The inhabitants, settlements,geography, climate, and economic activities, as well as the forms of coexistenceof diverse human groups, are recurring themes in these descriptions andreports. What is by no means uniform, however, is the agency that these aspectstake on in one epoch or another, or what these informants have to say about it.Thus, for example, the fears and concerns of the Jesuits with respect to the magicaland supernatural universe that distinguished the indigenous populations arenot echoed in the descriptions elaborated later by the Franciscan missionaries, asthey were more concerned with attacks by the Apaches and expansion into newmissionary territories. By the same token, the wealth of notes about the peoplewho lived in the sierras and valleys found in early descriptions of Sonora werethe precursors of serious reflections from later epochs concerning the problemsof the layout of the places in which those people lived.

In this thematic diversity, four aspects can be clearly identified because theyappear often in practically all testimonies evaluated here. They will serve as theguiding axes of this analysis: (1) the characterization of the Sonoran settlers,(2) the criteria for regionalization and division of the province, (3) the influenceof geographical conditions (climate, soil erosion, fluctuations in precipitation)on the planning and permanence of populations, and (4) the nature ofthe coexistence of the colonists there. To better appreciate the ways in whichboth the representations of the Sonoran landscape and the province itselfchanged, available testimonies are grouped into three periods: from the earlyeighteenth century to the Indian uprisings of 1740, from the recomposition ofSonora to the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, and from the reorganization ofthe ecclesiastical jurisdictions to the final days of the Franciscan administration.

The Early Eighteenth Century

In 1687, missionaries of the Society of Jesus succeeded in gaining afoothold in Pimería Alta when they established New Spain’s northernmost missions(Map 1.2). Their arrival in Pimería Alta marked the culmination of animportant phase of expansion that allowed them to establish colleges and missionsunder their auspices from the villa of San Felipe and Santiago in Sinaloa asfar north as Tucson. To ensure a better spiritual and material administration oftheir mission establishments, the Jesuits organized this territory into four rectoratesor administrative units. Each one came under the direction of a priest-rectorwho, in turn, answered to the authority of the father provincial . Duringthe early years of mission organization in Sonora, it was a common practice forthe Jesuits themselves, or a visiting priest on his triennial inspection, to sendreports back to their superior in Mexico City concerning the condition or statusof those missions. However, after 1721, the general of the Jesuits in Romedecreed that such reports be remitted to Rome by a father visitor every six years,together with more detailed news on the state of the missions and the numberof settlers, among other matters deemed sufficiently important to be included.

Following these orders, the priests Daniel Januske (1723) and Cristóbal deCañas (1730) drafted voluminous descriptions of Sonora that highlight differentaspects of the province, according to the experiences of each author. Theserecords provide the source for the following descriptions of Sonora.
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