The Seri people are not related culturally or linguistically to other groups that have lived in the area, such as the Opata, Yaqui (sg.

Resendez writes about a slaving raid in 1660s: "A posse of Spaniards had cut a swath through the Seri lands, killing most of the adults of one band and distributing the children in the Spanish towns of Sonora.

(Claims that it is from Opata or from Yaqui were nineteenth-century speculations based on similarity to words in those languages and lack clear evidence.

The territory extended from the Altar desert in the north to the Yaqui river in the South and from Horcasitas in the east to the nearby islands of Tiburón, San Esteban, Patos, and Alcatraz in the west.

It was believed in this period that the Seri people were organized into six bands, divided into their own clans based on their paternal lineage.

Expeditions by the Mexican military were led against the Seri and continued to decimate their population and territory until the early 1900s.

Their territory was not very useful, they did not have accumulated wealth, they did not produce enough to make the conquest profitable, and they were not suited as laborers to cultivate and serve as they were not familiar with that lifestyle.

During the colonial period, the Jesuits, who tried to evangelize them and teach them agricultural practices, were the most sustained contact the Seri had with outsiders.

By the time of Mexican independence, the previous organization system had been dismantled, and the Seri were almost entirely settled on the mainland.

The scarcity of water and of animals for hunting, along with various diseases, were the predominant factors as to why the Seri people abandoned their refuge on Tiburón Island and returned to the mainland.

From that moment, the Seri people began to occupy an essential role in the economy of commercial exchange and to use money in their market operations.

It is thought that the first dialect was spoken by the Xiica hai iic coii, Xiica xnaai iic coii, Tahejöc comcaac and Heeno comcaac Bands and presently this variant is the only dialect spoken and is the ancestor of modern-day Seri.

The third dialect is also extinct and was spoken by the Xiica hast ano coii Band; it was described as sounding musical, as if speakers were singing instead of speaking (Moser 1963).

They possess knowledge about some plants that can be used to cure mild illnesses but the study of Seri ethnomedicine is still being investigated today.

The biodiversity of their arid climate and inability to maintain standard agricultural practices and livestock means that the knowledge of their ethnomedicines is very valuable.

The nomadic lifestyle of the group caused changes in their diet and patterns of consumption which has generated varying health problems like diabetes.

Due to the territorial extension with which they were endowed and their small population, the Seri, along with the Lacandones, can be considered the indigenous people with the greatest land possession in Mexico.

However, the difficult environmental conditions of their land makes it very hard for the Seri to utilize their territory for agricultural purposes.

With such dramatic regional characteristics, the development of agriculture has been impossible up to now and maintaining livestock has been difficult due to water scarcity.

Fishing, particularly harvesting crabs and scallops, along with traditional ironwood carvings, elaborate basket making, and necklace work have been the main sources of income for the Seri.

The Seri came to establish systems of reciprocity and resource distribution through kinship relationships which ensure the total survival of the group.

One of these systems is named quiimosim, which gives every member of the tribe the right to request part of the food that is consumed in the community without prior invitation.

Their interpretation of the world, its rites, its festivals, and other cultural manifestations are closely related to nature and the biological and social aspects of the group.

Instruments like foot drums or rattling gourds may be used to accompany quick and repetitive Seri singing.

Some songs even feature knowledge of their ecological environment and the ethnobotanical aspects of their culture which has allowed them to survive under difficult environmental conditions.

While there are virtually no written records kept by the Seri, their songs have served as libraries of knowledge about their history, beliefs, and culture.

The types of songs include: The ethnonym of the Seri people, Comcaac, was first recorded by United States Boundary Commissioner John Russell Bartlett, who was in the area for a short visit in early 1852.

The Seri are the only people known to have harvested the maritime Zostera marina seagrass species for its seeds, before their nutritional value was discovered in recent times.