The Kejache () (sometimes spelt Kehache, Quejache, Kehach, Kejach or Cehache) were a
Maya people
The Maya peoples () are an ethnolinguistic group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya civilization was formed by members of this group, and today's Maya are generally descended from people ...
in northern Guatemala at the time of Spanish contact in the 17th century.
The Kejache territory was located in the
Petén Basin
The Petén Basin is a geographical subregion of Mesoamerica, primarily located in northern Guatemala within the Department of El Petén, and into Campeche state in southeastern Mexico.
During the Late Preclassic and Classic periods of pre-Col ...
in a region that takes in parts of both Guatemala and Mexico. Linguistic evidence indicates that the Kejache shared a common origin with the neighbouring
Itzas to their southeast and the Kejache may have occupied the general region since the
Classic period
Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of prehispanic Mesoamerica into several periods: the Paleo-Indian (first human habitation until 3500 BCE); the Archaic (before 2600 BCE), the Preclassic or Formative (2500 BCE –  ...
(c. AD 250–900). The Kejache were initially contacted by
conquistador
Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, ...
Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca (; ; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of w ...
in 1525; they were later in prolonged contact with the Spanish as the latter opened a route southwards towards Lake Petén Itzá.
Territory
The Kejache occupied a region that is now crossed by the border between
Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by Hon ...
and the
Mexican state
The states of Mexico are first-level administrative territorial entities of the country of Mexico, which is officially named United Mexican States. There are 32 federal entities in Mexico (31 states and the capital, Mexico City, as a separate en ...
of
Campeche
Campeche (; yua, Kaampech ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Campeche ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Campeche), is one of the 31 states which make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. Located in southeast Mexico, it is bordered by ...
,
[Chávez Gómez 2006, p. 58.] in an area measuring approximately extending from lakes Silvituk and Moku in Mexico southwards towards
Uaxactun
Uaxactun (pronounced ) is an ancient sacred place of the Maya civilization, located in the Petén Basin region of the Maya lowlands, in the present-day department of Petén, Guatemala. The site lies some north of the major center of Tikal. T ...
in Guatemala.
[Villa Rojas 1985, p. 447.] The Kejache held a province that lay between the
Itza kingdom centred on the city of
Nojpetén and what, after the initial stages of the
Spanish conquest, became the
Spanish-held Yucatán to the north.
[Jones 2000, p. 353.] The Kejache were bordered immediately to the north by the territory of the
Acalan, a
Chontal Maya people.
[Rice and Rice 2005, p. 152.] The precise geopolitical extent of the Kejache is poorly understood, and no archaeological surveys of the Kejache territory have taken place.
The Kejache territory consisted of a region of low hills with wide valleys that form swamplands during the rainy season, the region is also characterised by a number of small lakes, such as Lake Moku, Lake Silvituk and Chan Laguna.
Culture
The Kejache, as described by the Spanish, were poorer than neighbouring Maya peoples, using wood and thatch as building materials and lacking material resources. Kejache weapons consisted of short spears and bows and arrows; apparently they did not use shields, unlike their neighbours. The Kejache cultivated
maize
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American English, North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous ...
,
black beans,
squash and
turkeys. The Kejache
traded with the Acalan Maya to their northwest, exchanging cotton clothing for salt.
By the mid-17th century the Kejache were important intermediaries between the Itza and Yucatán. The Putun Acalan subgroup of the Kejache had previously traded directly with the Itza but had been relocated by the Spanish. The remaining Kejache, decimated by disease and subject to the intense attentions of Spanish missionaries, were no longer able to supply the Itza directly and became middlemen instead.
Language and etymology
''Kejache'' was the name by which they identified themselves to others.
The Kejache spoke the
Yucatec Maya language
Yucatec Maya (; referred to by its speakers simply as Maya or as , is one of the 32 Mayan languages of the Mayan language family. Yucatec Maya is spoken in the Yucatán Peninsula and northern Belize. There is also a significant diasporic com ...
,
and the name ''kejache'' is derived from the Yucatec words ''kej'' meaning "deer" and ''ach'', which was a suffix that may have indicated the abundance of the animals.
[Jones 1998, p. 435n13.] The Kejache territory was referred to as Mazatlan in the
Nahuatl
Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have small ...
language of the
Aztecs
The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl ...
; the Spanish
conquistador
Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, ...
Bernal Díaz del Castillo
Bernal Díaz del Castillo ( 1492 – 3 February 1584) was a Spanish conquistador, who participated as a soldier in the conquest of the Aztec Empire under Hernán Cortés and late in his life wrote an account of the events. As an experience ...
interpreted the "land of the Mazatecas" as the "town or lands of deer".
The Kejache shared many surnames with the neighbouring Itzas and, despite the later hostility between the two peoples, it is likely that they had a common origin.
History
Although the Kejache seem to have had a common origin with the Itza, possibly as far back as the
Late Classic period (c. AD 600–900), the approximate date of their division into separate peoples is unknown. The Kejache separation may have occurred due to either continued Itza migration to Petén during the Postclassic period (c. 900–1697) or because internal warfare caused them to divide. It is possible that the Kejache had occupied their territory since the Classic period and they may have been descendants of the inhabitants of the prominent
Maya cities in the region, such as
Calakmul and the cities of the
Río Bec zone.
The Kejache are likely to have occupied the
Petén region of what is now northern Guatemala for a considerable time before being displaced by Itza expansion into the area north and northwest of the Itza kingdom. The Kejache province was frequently at war with the Itza and the two territories were separated by a deserted no-man's land. The Kejache are believed to have lacked a centralised political structure,
[Rice and Rice 2009, p. 12.] although their capital was said to be Mazatlan (as referred to in Nahuatl by Aztec merchants).
[Chávez Gómez 2006, p. 60.] Ten Kejache towns are mentioned in Spanish colonial documents,
[Villa Rojas 1985, p. 455.] including Tiac and Yaxuncabil, mentioned by
Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca (; ; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of w ...
.
Spanish conquest
Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés passed through Kejache territory in 1525 en route to
Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...
and reported that the Kejache towns were situated in easily defensible locations and were often fortified.
One of these was built on a rocky outcrop near a lake and a river that fed into it. The town was fortified with a wooden palisade and was surrounded by a moat. Cortés reported that the town of Tiac was even larger and was fortified with walls, watchtowers and earthworks; the town itself was divided into three individually fortified districts. Tiac was said to have been at war with the unnamed smaller town. The Kejache claimed that their towns were fortified against the attacks of their aggressive Itza neighbours.
In 1531
Alonso Dávila crossed the north of Kejache territory in search of an adequate base of operations for conquest.
[Villa Rojas 1985, p. 450.] A portion of the northern Kejache territory was given in ''
encomienda
The ''encomienda'' () was a Spanish labour system that rewarded conquerors with the labour of conquered non-Christian peoples. The labourers, in theory, were provided with benefits by the conquerors for whom they laboured, including military ...
'' to Miguel Sánchez Cerdán in May 1543.
By 1600, the Kejache population is estimated to have been around 7000, distributed between 10–20 settlements. By this time, the Kejache were under pressure not just from the Itzá, but also from the
Lakandon Ch'ol to the southwest, and Christianised
Chontal to the west. The northern part of the Kejache territory received a steady stream of Maya refugees fleeing the Spanish province of Yucatán. By the 17th century the Kejache were acting as middlemen between
Spanish Yucatán and the independent Maya of central Petén, although the presence of Spanish missionaries among them provoked hostility from the Itza, and simultaneously exposed them to the danger of epidemic diseases contracted from the Europeans.
The Kejache had a number of well-fortified towns built along the principal trade route from
Campeche
Campeche (; yua, Kaampech ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Campeche ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Campeche), is one of the 31 states which make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. Located in southeast Mexico, it is bordered by ...
to Lake Petén Itzá. By the first decades of the 17th century, the Kejache town of Tzuktok became the southern frontier of Spanish missionary efforts from Yucatán. By that time, Tzuktok had a mixed population of native Kejache and Yucatec refugees. The Spanish built a road through the Kejache territory from Campeche on the west coast of the Yucatán Peninsula and the Spanish established missions at the Kejache towns of Ichbalche and Tzuktok.
By the last decade of the 17th century, the Spanish also had a priest at Chuntuki, also on the new road (or ''camino real'' – "royal road").
After the fall of the Itza to the Spanish invaders in 1697, the surviving Kejache fled with Itza and
Kowoj refugees into the
Lacandon forest, where they became the ancestors of the modern
Lacandon people.
[Hofling 2009, p. 78.]
Notes
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{{Authority control
Maya peoples
Mesoamerican cultures
Maya civilization
Mayan chiefdoms of the Yucatán Peninsula
Former indigenous peoples in Guatemala
Maya Postclassic Period
Maya Contact Period
History of Petén