The ethnic groups of Chihuahua are the Tarahumaras, Tepehuanes del Norte, Guarijíos or “Makuráwe”, Pimas or “O'oba”. It is estimated that a total of 93,709 indigenous people live in Chihuahua, representing 3.8% of the total population.
85% of the indigenous population of Chihuahua is distributed in 23 municipalities in the mountains. Some of them are: Guadalupe y Calvo, Urique, Guazapares, Guachochi, Balleza, Bocoyna, Batopilas and Morelos.
In addition, according to UNESCO, the Catholic religion is the one that predominates among the indigenous population, with 78.1%.
Indigenous groups of Chihuahua, Mexico
In the state of Chihuahua there are 6,998 registered indigenous communities. Of these, 86% have less than 50 inhabitants, who are divided into four groups. The locations of these ethnic groups are in hard-to-reach territories.
As for the language, the predominant one in the state is Tarahumara with 84.2%, or 85,316 people.
Then there is Tepehuán with 7.3%, approximately 8,396 indigenous people. Finally, Nahuatl with 1.2%, which is equivalent to 1,286. The rest speak a language from the Mixtec languages.
Guarijíos
The Guarijíos continue to live in their original territory, that is, around the border that delimits Sonora and Chihuahua. They have lived there since before the arrival of the Spanish.
Regarding the language, this community speaks variants belonging to the Yuto Nahua linguistic family.
Guarijío or Guarijó means “people”, it is also translated as “the people who speak Guarijía”.
Raramuri
The Tarahumara Indians call themselves "rarámuris," which means "runners on foot."
Their language is part of the Yuto Aztec family, the same one that extends from the state of Utah and goes to Central America.
The territory that is known as Sierra Tarahumara is located in the mountainous system that crosses from north to south the Sierra Madre Occidental in the state of Chihuahua.
In addition, it limits to the west with the mountainous area of the state of Sonora, in the east with Chihuahua and to the south with the entity of Durango.
North Tepehuanes
The northern Tepehuanes or Odami generally inhabit the municipality of Guadalupe y Calvo, although they are also found in smaller numbers in the municipality of Guachochi.
Tepehuano translates as "people of the mountains." They live north in the Sierra Madre Occidental. They are distributed in ranches between peaks and ravines of the Sierra Tarahumara, in the south of Chihuahua.
At the time of colonization, the Tepehuanes were evangelized by Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries. According to some of the missionaries, the Tepehuanes were warlike and polytheistic.
Pimas
The main Pima communities are found in the municipality of Madera and in the community of Yepachi, which belongs to the municipality of Temósachi.
During the colonization, every time the Spanish asked o'odham speakers something, they answered pi'ma, whose meaning can be “does not exist”, “I don't have”, or “I don't understand”.
The confused conquerors decided to use the expression and Spanishize it to refer to this tribe, as a gentilicio.
References
- National Commission for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico (April 2017). «Ethnography of the Tarahumara people». cdi.gob.mx
- Government of Chihuahua (SF). "Development of ethnic groups". ihacienda.chihuahua.gob.mx/tfiscal/
- National Commission for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico (December 2003), "Guarijíos", Indigenous Peoples of Contemporary Mexico. gob.mx
- National Commission for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico (December 2004), "Tepehuanes del norte", Indigenous Peoples of Contemporary Mexico. gob.mx
- INI (1994), «Indigenous peoples of Mexico: Pimas, Mexico», Andrés Ortiz Garay.