The Caxcan were a partly nomadic

indigenous people of Mexico Indigenous peoples of Mexico ( es, gente indígena de México, pueblos indígenas de México), Native Mexicans ( es, nativos mexicanos) or Mexican Native Americans ( es, pueblos originarios de México, lit=Original peoples of Mexico), are those ...

. Under their leader, Tenamaztle, the Caxcan were allied with the

Zacatecos The Zacatecos (or Zacatecas) is the name of an indigenous group, one of the peoples called Chichimecas by the Aztecs. They lived in most of what is now the state of Zacatecas and the northeastern part of Durango. They have many direct descendan ...

against the

Spaniards Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance peoples, Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of National and regional identity in Spain, national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex Hist ...

during the Mixtón Rebellion in 1540-42. During the rebellion, they were described as "the heart and the center of the Indian Rebellion". After the rebellion, they were a constant target of the

and

Guachichiles The Guachichil, Cuauchichil, or Quauhchichitl, are an Indigenous people of Mexico. Pre-contact, they occupied the most extensive territory of all the indigenous Chichimeca Nations tribes in pre-Columbian Central Mexico. The Guachichiles roamed ...

due to their ceasefire agreement with the

. Their principal religious and population centers were at Teul, Tlaltenango,

Juchipila Juchipila (Nahuatl: ''Xochipillan'', "place of noble or beautiful flowers") is a municipality in the Mexican state of Zacatecas, located approximately southwest of the state capital Zacatecas City. Geography The municipality of Juchipila is loca ...

, and

Teocaltiche Teocaltiche ( nah, Teocaltillitzin "place near the temple") is a town and municipality in the central-western Mexican state of Jalisco. It is located in the northeastern highlands region of Jalisco, commonly referred to in Spanish as "Los Altos de ...

. Over time, the Caxcans lost their culture due to warfare, disease, and marriage to non-Caxcans. Also, most of the Caxcans were sent into slavery by the Spanish to work in silver mines. During the colonial period, many Spanish (and some Basque settlers) had intermarried, or had relations, with the Caxcans making many Caxcan descendants Mestizos. The allied tribes and Mestizos settled the Caxcan lands in Zacatecas and Jalisco. Their language was part of the

Uto-Aztecan language Uto-Aztecan, Uto-Aztekan or (rarely in English) Uto-Nahuatl is a family of indigenous languages of the Americas, consisting of over thirty languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found almost entirely in the Western United States and Mexico. The n ...

family. Their elected rulers were called tlatoani. Caxcan society was divided up into several different city-states.

The Chichimeca War

The

Chichimeca War The Chichimeca War (1550–90) was a military conflict between the Spanish Empire and the Chichimeca Confederation established in the territories today known as the Central Mexican Plateau, called by the Conquistadores La Gran Chichimeca. Th ...

(1550–1590) was a military conflict waged between

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

colonizers and their Indian allies against a confederation of

Chichimeca Chichimeca () is the name that the Nahua peoples of Mexico generically applied to nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples who were established in present-day Bajio region of Mexico. Chichimeca carried the meaning as the Roman term "barbarian" that des ...

Indians. It was the longest and most expensive conflict between Spaniards and the indigenous peoples of

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...

in the history of the colony. The Chichimeca wars began eight years after the Mixtón Rebellion (1540–1542). It can be considered as a continuation of that rebellion as the fighting did not come to a halt in the intervening years. Unlike in the Mixtón rebellion, the Caxcanes were now allied with the Spanish. The war was fought in the

Bajío El Bajío (the ''lowland'') is a cultural and geographical region within the central Mexican plateau which roughly spans from north-west of the Mexico City metropolitan area to the main silver mines in the northern-central part of the country. Thi ...

region known as

La Gran Chichimeca La Gran Chichimeca was a term used by the Spanish ''conquistadores'' of the 16th century to refer to an area of the northern central Mexican ''altiplano'' (plateau), a territory which today is encompassed by the modern Mexican states of Jalisco, A ...

, specifically in the

Mexican state The states of Mexico are first-level administrative territorial entities of the country of Mexico, which is officially named Mexico, United Mexican States. There are 32 federal entities in Mexico (31 states and the capital, Mexico City, as a sepa ...

s of

Zacatecas , image_map = Zacatecas in Mexico (location map scheme).svg , map_caption = State of Zacatecas within Mexico , coordinates = , coor_pinpoint = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type ...

Guanajuato Guanajuato (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guanajuato ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Guanajuato), is one of the 32 states that make up the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 46 municipalities and its capital city i ...

Aguascalientes Aguascalientes (; ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Aguascalientes ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Aguascalientes), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. At 22°N and ...

Jalisco Jalisco (, , ; Nahuatl: Xalixco), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco ; Nahuatl: Tlahtohcayotl Xalixco), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal En ...

, and San Luis Potosi.

Post 1900s

The Council of the Caxcan indigenous people was formed in the 1920s by

Juana Belén Gutiérrez de Mendoza Juana Belén Gutiérrez de Mendoza (27 January 187513 July 1942) was a Mexican anarchist and feminist activist, typographer, journalist and poet. Biography She was born to a poor family in the town of San Juan del Río, Durango, on 27 January 18 ...

, a Caxcan from Durango.Pouwels, Joel Bollinger. Political Journalism by Mexican Women During the Age of Revolution 1876-1940. New York: Edwin Mellen P, 2006] She also published ''Alto!'', a book which stressed Mexican Nationalism through indigenous roots and, even after the alleged extinction of the Caxcan people, is quoted as saying "We do not recognize the right of any race to impose its civilization upon us" as a way to promote indigeneity. Caxcan people continue to live in Zacatecas and in diaspora. They are currently attempting to regain legal access to their sacred mountain, Tlachialoyantepec (El Cerro de las Ventanas).https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/where-we-belong

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caxcan Indigenous peoples of Aridoamerica Indigenous peoples in Mexico History of Zacatecas