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 | |
| 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]
History
[edit]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
[edit]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
[edit]- Acaxee (proper)
- Sabaibo
- Tebaca
- Papudo
- Tecaya
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ Barnes, Thomas C.; Naylor, Thomas H.; Polzer, Charles W. Northern New Spain: A Research Guide. University of Arizona. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
- ^ Alternate spellings include: Acage, Acagee, Acaje, Acajee, Acaxe.[1]
- ^ "Indians.org :: Indian Population of Mexico". Archived from the original on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 2011-02-01., accessed 1 Feb 2011
- ^ a b c "Indigenous Sinaloa: From the Colonial Period to the Present (Part 2)". Indigenous Mexico. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
- ^ a b c 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.
- ^ 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
[edit]- Beals, Ralph L. 1933. The Acaxee: a Mountain Tribe of Durango and Sinaloa.
Further reading
[edit]- 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
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
