Jesuit Juan Fonte established a mission, San Pablo Balleza, at the southern end of Tarahumara territory, expanding from missionary work with the Tepehuan to the south.

[5][6] The discovery of the mines of Parral, Chihuahua, in 1631 increased Spanish presence in Tarahumara lands, bringing more slave raids and Jesuit missionaries.

The Tarahumara word for themselves, Rarámuri, means "runners on foot" or "those who run fast" in their native tongue according to some early ethnographers like Norwegian Carl Lumholtz, though this interpretation has not been fully agreed upon.

With widely dispersed settlements, these people developed a tradition of long-distance running up to 200 miles (320 km) in one session, over a period of two days through their homeland of rough canyon country, for inter-village communication, transportation, and hunting.

[17] Tarahumara sandals has become a byword in many US minimalist running circles with many companies starting since McDougall's book popularized the style.

Forced into a rapid series of takeoffs, without sufficient rest periods between, the heavy-bodied bird does not have the strength to fly or run away from the Tarahumara hunter.

Later, when the Jesuit order was expelled, the Rarámuri were left free to interpret, modify, maintain or promulgate Catholic beliefs, symbols, and practices with little outside intervention .

Another reported variation is that God has a wife who lives with him in heaven, along with their sons, the so-called sukristo (from Spanish Jesucristo) and their daughters, the Santi.

Some Tarahumaras maintain a belief that the afterlife is a mirror image of the mortal world and that good deeds should be performed—not for spiritual reward—but for the improvement of life on earth.

The tunes are known as matachín pieces and are danced by dancers lavishly dressed in colorful attire resembling North African garments and accompanied by rattles (sáuraka).

[25] Traditional Rarámuri dresses displayed at the Museo de Arte Popular in Mexico City: Staple crops of the Tarahumara are maize, beans, greens, squash, and tobacco.

The Tarahumara practice persistence hunting of deer and wild turkeys by following them at a steady pace for one or two days until the animal drops from exhaustion.

[29] According to William Connors, a dietary researcher, their traditional diet was found to be linked to their low incidence of diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes.

These gatherings take place all year round, but most happen in winter, and are the social events between the neighboring Tarahumara people.

Some of these events take place during and after communal activities, for example when neighbors help one another's families with their fields or build large structures like granaries, houses, and corrals.

Anthropologist John Kennedy describes the institution of tesgüinada as an important social fabric of Tarahumara culture which he calls the "tesgüino network".

He also states that "the average Tarahumara spends at least 100 days per year directly concerned with tesgüino and much of this time under its influence or aftereffects.

[38] The Mexican Commission of Solidarity and Defense of Human Rights produced a report in 2000 noting the lack of studies by the government on how lumber production affected the ecosystem.

Similarly, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) boosted foreign investment which resulted in the privatization of communal land and market-based mechanisms of environmental regulation.

[38] In January 2017, Isidro Baldenegro López (2005 recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize) a community leader of the Tarahumara, was shot and killed in Mexico.

Baldenegro spent much of his life defending the ancient forests of the Sierra Madre region from the devastating effects of logging.

Agricultural losses in Chihuahua are estimated at $25 million; 180,000 cattle have already died as a result of the growing lack of precipitation in the region.

These Indigenous people face extreme poverty, as reflected in the Mexican Human Development Index (HDI) which in the Sierra Madre is the lowest in the country: 49.1% below the national average.

[41] Alberto Herrera, the Mexican director of Amnesty International stated that the Indigenous people in his country have endured "permanent discrimination, exclusion, and marginalization.

[43] Since the Spanish conquest, thousands of tons of mercury and lead have been released in the Mexican mining belt, which stretches from Oaxaca to Sonora in the northwest.

Logging is not only controlled by the Mexican government but also practiced illegally by loggers and drug lords who use the forests to grow marijuana or opium or as space for their operations.

[48] Cartels have exploited the Tarahumaras' reputation as long-distance runners by forcing them into running illegal drugs into the United States.

[49] The conditions of violence that are lived urge the Raramuri population to flee from their place of origin, often intimidated by criminal groups and extraction companies both Mexican and foreign.

Currently, this line is used by the train Chihuahua Pacífico or El Chepe to transport tourists, lured by false representations of the area as pure and pristine, to sightseeing locales.