Yaqui Wars: Difference between revisions

Yaqui Wars
Part of the Mexican Indian Wars
The Yaqui warrior Cajemé in April of 1887, shortly before his arrest by Mexican authorities.
Date 1740 - 1927 Location Sonora, Mexico Result Mexican victory
Belligerents
Spain (1740-1821)  Mexico (1821-1927)	Yaqui
Commanders and leaders
Alvaro Obregon Rafael Izábal	Juan Banderas José Maria Peres Juan Maldonado

The Yaqui Wars^[1], were a series of armed conflict between New Spain, and the later Mexican republic, against the Yaqui native Americans. The wars began around 1740 and lasted until 1927, however, occassional outbursts of hostilities between the Mexicans and the Yaquis continued for several years afterward. The Yaqui Wars, along with the Caste War were the last conflicts of the centuries long Mexican Indian Wars.^[2]

The principal cause of the conflicts was like many of the Indian wars in history, in 1684, the Spanish colonists in the present day Mexican state of Sonora, discovered silver in the Rio Yaqui Valley. Following this, the Spanish gradually began settling on Yaqui land and by 1740, the natives were ready to resist. That year the Yaquis united their tribe with the neighboring Mayo, Opata, and Pima natives and successfully drove the colonists out by 1742. For the next several decades, the Spanish, and after 1821, the new Mexican republic, would fight a drawn out war to either conquer, or to hold on to the Yaqui's land. In 1833, the Yaqui leader Juan Banderas, and an Opata chief, were executed for attempting to reunite the tribes of northern Mexico. But like Banderas, their were other leaders who continued resisting so the wars continued. One incident in 1868 was a massacre of about 120 Yaqui men, women and children, by Mexican soldiers, after 600 surrendered near Vahkom Pueblo. Some 400 of the Yaqui prisoners were held inside a church which was then bombarded by artillery. Affairs such as this drove many of the natives to emmigrate, while others were deported by the Mexicans or enslaved.^[3]

Some warriors fled from their occupied pueblos along the Rio Yaqui and continued fighting in the Sierra Vakatetteve. In 1872, Mexico became a dictatorship under Porfirio Diaz and in 1876 the Yaqui leader José Maria Peres, or Cajemé, established a small independent republic in Sonora. By then their were only about 4,000 "undefeated" Yaquis and they attemped to defend their county by building the fortified town of El Añil. Though in 1886, the Mexican besieged the town in the Battle of El Añil which ended the Yaqui republic. One year later Cajemé was captured and executed in Guaymas. Juan Maldonado took Cajemé's place and he continued a guerilla war in the Sierra Bacatete. The Yaqui towns along the Rio Yaqui became mostly deserted with the majority of the inhabitants fleeing north to settle in the United States around Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona. In 1897 a [[peace treaty was signed in Ortiz but in 1899 another serious outbreak of hostilities began and it led to the bloody Mazocoba Massacre of 1900, in which about 1,000 Yaquis were killed.^[4]

Around this time Porfirio Diaz began advocating for a solution to the Yaqui wars. By 1903 the decision was to deport both the peaceful and rebellious Yaqui natives to the Yucatan and Oaxaca. Meanwhile, from 1904 to 1909, the Mexican governor of Sonora, Rafael Izábal, led "organized manhunts" in which about 8,000 to 15,000 Yaquis were taken prisoner and "virtually enslaved". Following the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, Yaqui warriors joined all of the armies of the major rebel factions. They also began resettling their ancestral lands along the Rio Yaqui. In 1911, Diaz was exiled and President Francisco Madero took office. He is said to have promised the Yaqui people compensation for their losses but by 1920, when the main phase of the war ended, the promises were forgotten about. By 1916, Mexican generals, such as Alvaro Obregon began establishing estates on Yaqui land during the revolution and this led to renewed hostilities between the natives and the military. It was during this period of the conflict that the United States Army fought the last battle of the American Indian Wars.^[5]

In January of 1918, a small group of about thirty natives were intercepted by Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry, just across the international border, near Arivaca, Arizona. In the thirty-minute skirmish that follwed, the Yaqui commander was killed and a handful of others were taken prisoner. The last major battle of the Yaqui Wars came almost ten years later in 1927 at the Battle of Cerro del Gallo. After that all of the Yaqui settlements in Mexico were occupied by soldiers and this led to a lasting peace.^[6][7]

• Renegade period of the Apache Wars
• Mexican Apache Wars
• Mexican Comanche Wars