Spanish missions in the Sonoran Desert

The Spanish missions in the Sonoran Desert (Spanish: Misiones jesuíticas en el desierto de Sonora) are a series of Jesuit Catholic religious outposts established by the Spanish Catholic Jesuits and other orders for religious conversions of the Pima and Tohono O'odham indigenous peoples residing in the Sonoran Desert.

An added goal was giving Spain a colonial presence in their frontier territory of the Sonora y Sinaloa Province in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and relocating by Indian Reductions (Reducciones de Indios) settlements and encomiendas for agricultural, ranching, and mining labor.

Jesuits in missions in Northwestern Mexico wrote reports that throw light on the indigenous peoples they evangelized.

[4] In the Spring of 1687, Jesuit missionary named Father Eusebio Francisco Kino lived and worked with the Native Americans (including the Sobaipuri) in the area called the "Pimería Alta," or "Upper Pima Country," which presently is located in northern Sonora and southern Arizona.

[5][6] On February 3, 1768, King Carlos III ordered the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain and its overseas empire.