The Yaqui River (Río Yaqui in
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
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**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
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* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
) (Hiak Vatwe in the
Yaqui or Yoreme language) is a
river
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...
in the state of
Sonora in northwestern
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. It was formerly known as the Rio del Norte. Being the largest river system in the state of
Sonora, the Yaqui river is used for
irrigation
Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...
, especially in the
Valle del Yaqui.
The Rio Yaqui originates in the
Sierra Madre Occidental
The Sierra Madre Occidental is a major mountain range system of the North American Cordillera, that runs northwest–southeast through northwestern and western Mexico, and along the Gulf of California. The Sierra Madre is part of the American ...
at the junction of the
Rio Bavispe
The Rio Bavispe or Bavispe River is a river in Mexico which flows briefly north then mainly south by southwest until it joins with the Aros River to become the Yaqui River, eventually joining the Gulf of California.
History
Historically, the Rio ...
and the
Rio Aros at Lat. 29.529887 Long. −109.228377. It is approximately 320 km (200 mi) in length, and flows south and southwest into the
Gulf of California
The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja C ...
near the city of
Obregon.
Its course is interrupted by several reservoirs like
Plutarco Elías Calles
Plutarco Elías Calles (25 September 1877 – 19 October 1945) was a general in the Mexican Revolution and a Sonoran politician, serving as President of Mexico from 1924 to 1928.
The 1924 Calles presidential campaign was the first populist ...
(El Novillo), Lázaro Cárdenas (Angostura), or Álvaro Obregón (El Oviáchic,
Lake Ouiachic), which provides the water resource for the intensively irrigated region of
Ciudad Obregón.
Human history
As early as the 6th century AD, native inhabitants known as the Yoeme or
Yaqui
The Yaqui, Hiaki, or Yoeme, are a Native American people of the southwest, who speak a Uto-Aztecan language. Their homelands include the Río Yaqui valley in Sonora, Mexico, and the area below the Gila River in Arizona, Southwestern United Sta ...
were living in family groups along the Rio Yaqui. The Yaqui used simple irrigation techniques to cultivate
corn, beans, and squash while also hunting local game and gathering wild foods from the area. Yaquis traded native foods, furs, shells, salt, and other goods with many indigenous groups of central North America. The Yaquis lived more or less independently until the late 19th century, when many of them were driven from their lands surrounding the Rio Yaqui by the
Mexican Army
The Mexican Army ( es, Ejército Mexicano) is the combined land and air branch and is the largest part of the Mexican Armed Forces; it is also known as the National Defense Army.
The Army is under the authority of the Secretariat of National ...
and forced to flee to more remote areas. Many Yaquis left the Rio Yaqui area to fight in the Vakatetteve Mountains, while others relocated to Yaqui communities in Arizona. By the late 1880s, warfare with the Mexican Army had killed off many members of the Yaqui tribe, so that only 4,000 Yaquis remained in the Rio Yaqui area.
In the early 20th century, after a series of conflicts with the Mexican Army, many of the remaining Yaqui were arrested and dispersed to plantations in the
Yucatán Peninsula
The Yucatán Peninsula (, also , ; es, Península de Yucatán ) is a large peninsula in southeastern Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north ...
. The survivors continued resisting until the late 1920s, when Mexican authorities overcame resistance by employing heavy artillery and aircraft to bomb and shell Yaqui villages.
Also in the early 20th century, Major
Frederick Russell Burnham
Frederick Russell Burnham DSO (May 11, 1861 – September 1, 1947) was an American scout and world-traveling adventurer. He is known for his service to the British South Africa Company and to the British Army in colonial Africa, and for teach ...
, a celebrated American scout, went to Mexico in search of mineral resources. While there he met the naturalist Dr.
Charles Frederick Holder
Charles Frederick Holder (1851–1915) was an American naturalist, conservationist, and writer who produced over 40 books and thousands of articles. Known as a pioneer of big-game fishing, he founded and led the Tuna Club of Avalon, credited ...
and the two men soon became associated with the early Yaqui River irrigation project. Burnham reasoned that a dam could provide year-round water to rich
alluvial soil
Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...
in the valley; turning the region into one of the garden spots of the world and generate much needed electricity. He purchased water rights and some of land in this region and contacted an old friend from Africa,
John Hays Hammond
John Hays Hammond (March 31, 1855 – June 8, 1936) was an American mining engineer, diplomat, and philanthropist. He amassed a sizable fortune before the age of 40. An early advocate of deep mining, Hammond was given complete charge of Ce ...
, who conducted his own studies and then purchased an additional of this land—an area the size of
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...
. He became a close business associate of Hammond and led a team of 500 men in guarding mining properties owned by Hammond,
J.P. Morgan, and the
Guggenheims
The Guggenheim family ( ) is an American-Jewish family known for making their fortune in the mining industry, in the early 20th century, especially in the United States and South America. After World War I, many family members withdrew from th ...
in the
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
of
Sonora. Just as the irrigation and mining projects were nearing completion in 1912, the onset of the
Mexican Revolution frustrated their plans. The final blow to these efforts came in 1917 when Mexico passed laws prohibiting the sale of land to foreigners. Burnham and Hammond carried their properties until 1930 and then sold them to the Mexican government. In his case study of Burnham's American colonization scheme, Professor Bradford concluded: "a combination of Indian problems, the intricacies of the developing Mexican revolutionary process, and a less than clear-cut mandate from Washington, DC, served to bring the colony down."
Burnham, together with Holder, made archeological discoveries of what he believed to be remnants of
Maya civilization
The Maya civilization () of the Mesoamerican people is known by its ancient temples and glyphs. Its Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. It is also noted for its art, a ...
in the region, including the
Esperanza Stone
The Esperanza Stone was a large (8-feet long) inscribed stone found in the valley of the Yaqui, Mexico. It was discovered and excavated in 1909 by Major F. R. Burnham and Charles Frederick Holder.
Discovery
The stone was discovered during a ...
. In his book, ''
The Book of the Damned
''The Book of the Damned'' was the first published nonfiction work by American author Charles Fort (first edition 1919). Concerning various types of anomalous phenomena including UFOs, strange falls of both organic and inorganic materials fr ...
'',
Charles Fort
Charles Hoy Fort (August 6, 1874 – May 3, 1932) was an American writer and researcher who specialized in anomalous phenomena. The terms "Fortean" and "Forteana" are sometimes used to characterize various such phenomena. Fort's books sold ...
would use this stone as proof that
aliens from outer space had been on Earth. The supernatural nature of this stone would be perpetuated by many other authors in several subsequent books on
anomalistics
Anomalistics is the use of scientific methods to evaluate anomalies ( phenomena that fall outside current understanding), with the aim of finding a rational explanation.Hess David J. (1997) "Science Studies: an advanced introduction" New York U ...
.
Ecology
The Rio Yaqui was once home to the
American crocodile
The American crocodile (''Crocodylus acutus'') is a species of crocodilian found in the Neotropics. It is the most widespread of the four extant species of crocodiles from the Americas, with populations present from South Florida and the coasts ...
(''Crocodylus acutus'') and represented one of the northernmost natural locations for the species. Decades of
environmental degradation in the region led to the extirpation of the species from the region.
This was nearly the southern extent for the
Mexican grizzly bear
The Mexican grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis'', formerly ''Ursus arctos nelsoni'') is an extinct population of the grizzly bear in Mexico.
The holotype was shot by H. A. Cluff at Colonia Garcia, Chihuahua in 1899. The extinct California g ...
.
The
Mexican native trout or Yaqui trout and 34 other species of fish remains.
See also
*
List of longest rivers of Mexico
Among the longest rivers of Mexico are 26 streams of at least . In the case of rivers such as the Colorado, the length listed in the table below is solely that of the main stem. In the case of the Grijalva and Usumacinta, it is the combined leng ...
References
Bibliography
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External links
''The Yaqui River Drainage,'' Americas Heritage Waters, Northern Arizona UniversityCuenca Los Ojos Foundation
{{Authority control
Rivers of Sonora
Rivers of the Gulf of California
Rivers of the Sierra Madre Occidental
Rivers of Mexico