Tepehuán Revolt

The Tepehuan Indians, previously known for their bellicosity, had been considered pacified by 1590, with many congregating in Jesuit missions. On November 16, 1616, a wagon train traveling to Mexico City was attacked by the Tepehuanes just outside Santa Catalina de los Tepehuanes, a small Jesuit village in the eastern foothills of the Western Sierra Madre. Thus began what Jesuit historian Andrés Pérez de Ribas called "one of the greatest outbreaks of disorder, upheaval,and destruction that had been seen in New Spain...since the Conquest." Before it was finished, over 200 Spaniards, 10 missionaries and 4,000 Tepehuanes died with destruction to property valued at as much as a million pesos.

In 1615 and earlier these Indians had suffered an epidemic, and they fought to return to their traditional ways of life. The Tepehuan Revolt was significant in Tepehuan history because it was an attempt to revitalize Tepehuan culture. Tepehuan country was the site of profitable silver mines and Spanish commitment to the exploitation of these mines was a factor in the Jesuits' success in rebuilding the missions after the revolt. The Spanish presence also contributed to the defeat of the Tepehuanes and the loss of much of their traditional culture.

Upon being defeated by the Spanish, the Tepehuan went into hiding.

References

Gradie, Charlotte M. (2000) "The Tepehuan Revolt of 1616". Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press.

Riley, Carroll L. & Winters, Howard D. (1963) "The Prehistoric Tepehuan of Northern Mexico." "Southwestern Journal of Anthropology", 19(2):177-185. (Summer).