Cajemé (born José María Bonifacio Leyba[a] Pérez, May 14, 1835 – April 23, 1887) was a Yaqui military leader in the Mexican state of Sonora.

[4] At the age of 14, Cajemé accompanied his father, Fernando, and many other Yaqui people from Sonora, during the 1849 Gold Rush to Upper California.

[7] Cajemé had his first taste of military battle in 1854, while serving with the "Urbanos," the local militia of Guaymas, which was organized by his teacher, Cayetano Navarro.

After seeing all of the men that Raousset-Boulbon had lost in the fighting, the French vice-consul, Joseph Calvo, came and requested his intervention to make peace.

Gaston Rausset-Boulbon was sentenced to death, with the execution taking place in Guaymas, on August 12, 1854, in an area located in the north of the town square.

[11] Now 18 years of age, Cajemé looked for new opportunities in life, and traveled to Tepic, where he worked for a short time as a blacksmith.

Later, he was caught up in the draft for soldiers to serve in the regular army, the San Blas Battalion, but deserted after only three months of service.

With the Federal army still searching for him, he traveled to Mazatlán and joined a battalion comprising Pimas, Yaquis, and Opatas, that was part of the ranks of Pablo Lagarma, a Mexican insurgent, who had declared for constitutional restoration.

Due to his previous military experience, and the ability to speak three languages, he was appointed aide-de-camp to General Corona.

Having successfully served in the Mexican military in the war against the French occupation, Cajemé's service proved so exemplary that in 1872 he was appointed to the office of Alcalde Mayor of the Yaqui by then Sonora Governor Ignacio Pesqueira.

All these economic sources allowed them to procure arms and ammunition, and also to develop agriculture, animal husbandry and fishing.

The war was long-lasting due to the skill of the Yaqui in battle under Cajemé's leadership, and was particularly brutal, with atrocities on both sides, but with a much larger-scale slaughter by the military forces of the Mexican government under President Porfirio Díaz.

Riding on a horse, he would hook his leg around the pommel of his saddle, and sing a song of bravery and lack of fear of the Mexican army.

General Bonifacio Topete eventually took control of a large part of the force and attempted to overrun a major fortification that the Yaqui built near Vícam.

The fort, "El Añil" (The Indigo), was the first use of defensive warfare by Cajemé, and consisted of fences, parapets, and a moat surrounding the fortification.

Following his interview, Cajemé was taken from Guaymas bay by the Demócrata, a steam-powered, coal-fired, iron-hulled, schooner-rigged gunboat, with one funnel and three masts, to the Yaqui River port of El Médano, near Pótam.

Following this incident, General Martinez ordered an investigation of the actions of his young Lieutenant, Clemente Patiño (born November 1861 [25] who was in charge of the detachment that had escorted Cajemé.

Cuca was charged with murder and robbery in the District of Guaymas, and then taken to the Yaqui River and executed in front of his people.

At the direction of the Government of Sonora, a count was taken of the number of indigenous inhabitants still living in the Yaqui Pueblos of Cócorit, Tórim, and El Médano in late 1887.

[30] For many years following Cajemé's death there were strenuous efforts by the Mexican government to kill or remove all the Yaqui from the state of Sonora.

Quite a few Yaqui fled to Southern Arizona, the traditional Northernmost region of their territory, where many of their descendants live today.

[37] With the aide of her husband William, Victoria, along with her mother María, and her older brother Emiliano, were able to escape the continued persecution of the Yaqui people in Sonora.

At the start of the Mexican Revolution Godman relocated to Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, where he accepted a position as Port Superintendent for the International Railways of Central America (I.R.C.A.

Cajemé's second marriage was to María Jesús Maccima Matus Morales on June 14, 1878, recorded at San Fernando, Guaymas, Sonora.

[38] Dolores Salgado, the father of Cajemé's first wife, was one of the godparents (padrinos) of María Jesús Maccima Matus Morales at the time of her baptism on November 20, 1842.

[44] The Richardson Construction Company sold a 400 hectare block of land to developers from the United States and Europe, and received the exclusive right to sixty-five percent of the Yaqui River’s water for a 99-year period.

The Ferrocarril Sud-Pacífico, a subsidy of the Southern Pacific Railroad, established a station nearby called Cajeme, to provide water for the locomotives.