Tenamaxtli

Tenamaxtli was the leader of the Caxcan Chichimeca Indians. His name in Nahuatl meant "stones which are put in a girded to be heated by the fire"Along with leading the Caxcan Chichimeca Indians, he also lead the Zacateco Chichimeca Indians. Tenamaxtli was a Mexica(Aztec) who did not want to betray the Chichimecas because they were the only hope for the Mexican Natives to get their freedom back from the Europeans, so instead he joined them to fight the Spaniards. The Spaniards named Tenamaxtli "Francisco Tenamaxtli" because they were not able to pronounce "Tenamaxtli."The war started when the Spaniards first arrived in what they called Nueva Galicia (New Galicia) trying to conquer the Chichimeca Indians living there. They first arrived in what they called Guadalajara decided to conquer the Chichimeca Indians. At first Tenamaxtli wanted to deal with the Spaniards peacefully, but since that didn't work he declared war. He said ""Axcan quema, tehuatl nehuatl" meaning "Ok now, its either you, or me", this was the quote said by Tenamaxtli that declared war against the Spaniards. The Spaniards thought that they were going to be able to defeat the Zacateco and the Caxcanes easily with over 10,000 Native allies. The 10,000 Native allies included Christianized Mexicas, Tarascans and other tribal Christianized people. This was not enough for the Tenamaxtli and the Zacateco and the Caxcan Indians. They won this war and kept winning these wars with Tenamaxtli as their leader. The Spaniards finally found out that the Zacateco and Caxcan Indians were too strong to be defeated and finally surrendered.