[citation needed] Professor Manuel García Madrid, an Opata from Sonora, has published a linguistic text on the Tehuima dialect.
Field anthropologist Campbell Pennington researched and published much information on the Opatan peoples and their dialects during the latter part of their history.
"[8] Several Franciscan missionary records and subsequent anthropological accounts state that "Opata" was borrowed from a Pima Indian word meaning "enemy," the name allegedly given by the northern and southern Piman peoples to their Opatan neighbors.
[11] The Jova, however, were a more dispersed people, living in more rugged terrain, and depended more on hunting and gathering than the other Opata groups.
[12] The Opatas traded with other Indian nations (Concho, Zuni) to purchase turquoise in exchange for corn and cotton blankets.
Father Andrés Pérez de Ribas described Sisibotari, "He was handsome and still young, wore a long coat attached at his shoulder like a cape, and his loins were covered with a cloth, as was the custom of that nation.
[15] In 1628, Jesuit missionaries established a mission in Opatería and encountered little opposition to their efforts to evangelize, and later, to reorganize Opata society along Spanish lines.
The Spanish executed the Opata leaders, including Dorame,[21] a Eudeve, whose surname is still common in the Opatería region of Sonora.
Another anthropologist, Carl Lumholtz, commented that the Opatas had "lost their language, religion, and traditions, dress like the Mexicans, and in appearance are in no way distinguishable from the laboring class of Mexico with which they are thoroughly merged through frequent intermarriage.
The Opatas were the most numerous of the several indigenous groups in the state of Sonora, and the river valleys of their territory were densely populated with their permanent villages.
Many Opata descendants reside in other parts of Sonora, greater Mexico, and the southwestern United States, particularly in Arizona, where their ancestors migrated to work in agriculture and mining.
At the time of first contact with the Spanish, the Opata may have been the most numerous and culturally complex people living in Oasis America, comprising the desert regions of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States.
The rivers, west to east, are the San Miguel, Sonora, Moctezuma, and the two upper tributaries of the Yaqui, the Bavispe and the Arcos.
The Opata were not members of a single political entity, but rather organized into a number of "statelets" – several of which may have also been populated by their neighbors to the south, the Pima Bajo.
Due to the scarcity and irregularity of rainfall, the Opata practiced canal irrigation as well as dry-land farming techniques.
The Opata also hunted game, especially deer, with bows and arrows, fished in the rivers with spears and nets, and gathered wild foods such as Chenopodium and cactus leaves and fruits.
[citation needed] With decreasing population due to European diseases, Opatan societies in the 17th century became smaller and less complex.
Opata women were skilled weavers and wove dyed and full-length colorful cotton fiber dresses.
Men generally dressed more scantily in skirts made of hide, but also wore serapes (shawls) in cold weather.
Women often wore only hide skirts similar to those of men during warm weather, and both sexes often went about nude during the hot season.
(In addition, hu'ukis were used as sweat lodges, and small ones were constructed for the purpose of storing legumes to keep them cool and fresh longer).
Described as "obscene" in Spanish priests' written accounts (see, for example Cañas, 1730), a commonly reported fertility rite was a round dance known as the "Mariachi.
[38] The largest was the Eudeve (eh-oo-deh-veh), whose ancient villages and current towns encompass the western portions of traditional Opata territory.
[citation needed] However, the ancient Opatan spring procession rite known today as the fariseo (with some Catholicism mixed in) is still exercised during Easter week in most towns and villages in Opata Country.