Kejache

[3] 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.

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.

[6] 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.

The Kejache are believed to have lacked a centralised political structure,[6] although their capital was said to be Mazatlan (as referred to in Nahuatl by Aztec merchants).

[4] In 1531 Alonso Dávila crossed the north of Kejache territory in search of an adequate base of operations for conquest.

The northern part of the Kejache territory received a steady stream of Maya refugees fleeing the Spanish province of Yucatán.

[17] The Kejache had a number of well-fortified towns built along the principal trade route from Campeche to Lake Petén Itzá.

[18] By the first decades of the 17th century, the Kejache town of Tzuktok became the southern frontier of Spanish missionary efforts from Yucatán.