Tepehuán Revolt

Tepehuán people

The Tepehuán inhabited the rugged eastern slopes and valleys of the Sierra Madre Occidental, mainly in what would become Durango. They spoke a Uto-Aztecan language and relied on agriculture, distinguishing them from the nomadic Chichimeca hunter-gatherers to the east. The Tepehuán, along with the Acaxee and Xixime to the west, shared certain cultural traits. In the years before the revolt, repeated epidemics of European-introduced diseases struck the region in 1594, 1601–1602, 1606–1607, 1610, and 1616–1617.

The population of the Tepehuán and their neighbors may have fallen by over 80 percent, from more than 100,000 before European contact to fewer than 20,000, with the Tepehuán possibly accounting for half that number. During the Chichimeca War (1550–1590), the Tepehuán stayed neutral despite Chichimeca appeals. After failing to defeat the Chichimeca militarily, the Spanish adopted a 'peace by purchase' policy that relied on Catholic missionaries to pacify native groups, supplying them with food and tools and resettling them into towns. The Acaxee and Xixime were the first to experience this policy, and the Tepehuán were next.

Quautlatas and the Jesuits

Spanish settlers entered Tepehuán country in the 1570s to mine silver and raise cattle. Jesuit missionary work among the Tepehuán began in 1596, with missions established at Santiago Papasquiaro, Santa Catarina de Tepehuanes, and later El Zape. The Tepehuán appeared receptive to the missionaries but resisted living near the missions, working in Spanish mines and haciendas, and often raided Amerindians allied with the Spanish.

By 1615, a Jesuit declared the Tepehuán showed great progress and were muy ladino in matters of the faith. In 1616, a messianic leader named Quautlatas, who had been baptized as a Christian, emerged among the Tepehuán. Carrying a broken cross, he traveled through the mountains preaching that the gods were angry because the Tepehuán had abandoned them and that all Spaniards, especially missionaries, must be killed or expelled. Quautlatas blended Christian and Indigenous beliefs, calling himself a bishop and promising that those killed by the Spanish would rise again after seven days and that the old gods would bless the land with good crops and fat cattle after the Spanish were dead.

The Jesuits denied any Spanish responsibility for the revolt, with priest Andres Perez de Ribas stating that since the Spanish arrived there had been abundance of food, clothing, and riches. The Jesuits did not see the Tepehuán connection between the Spanish and death; the Tepehuán said the fathers brought disease and death with baptism. Jesuit consolidation of native peoples into larger settlements spread disease, and the Jesuits worked with encomenderos and miners to supply Indigenous laborers.

Revolt

On November 16, 1616, the Tepehuán attacked a wagon train traveling to Mexico City near Santa Catarina de Tepehuanes, beginning the revolt. Under six war chiefs, most notably Francisco Gogoxito, the Tepehuán launched nearly simultaneous attacks on missions and Spanish settlements. One hundred people were killed in a church at El Zape, and a similar number died in Santiago Papasquiaro. Only one Jesuit missionary in Tepehuán territory survived the initial attacks.

Governor Gaspar de Alvear, fearing an attack on Durango, arrested and executed 75 local Indigenous leaders. In December he led an expedition that rescued 400 Spanish and Indigenous allies. Another expedition of 67 Spanish cavalry and 120 Indigenous Concho allies from Guadalajara engaged the Tepehuán in March 1617, winning several battles.

The Spanish abandoned the 'peace by purchase' policy and waged a war of 'fire and blood,' targeting the six war chiefs. The last war chief, Gogoxito, was killed in March 1618 during the third major campaign, and Quautlatas was also killed. Hostilities continued, with Tepehuán raiding Spanish settlements and retreating to the mountains; one raid on Mapimi left about 100 dead. Over four years, more than 200 Spaniards, 10 missionaries, an unknown number of allied Amerindians, black slaves, and mestizos, and perhaps 4,000 Tepehuán died, many from hunger and disease, with property damage valued at up to a million pesos.