Spanish Jesuit missionary Andrés Pérez de Ribas (1576–1655) first wrote Yaqui and Hiaqui, later spelled Hiaki.

[9] Mid-19th-century Mexican scholars used Yaqui and Hiaqui interchangeably and broadened the term Cahita to refer to more regional peoples.

Most lived in agricultural communities, growing beans, maize, and squash on land inundated by the river every year.

[10] Captain Diego de Guzmán, leader of an expedition to explore lands north of the Spanish settlements, encountered the Yaqui in 1533.

In 1565, Francisco de Ibarra attempted, but failed, to establish a Spanish settlement in Yaqui territory.

What probably saved the Yaqui from an early invasion by the Spaniards was the lack of silver and other precious metals in their territory.

A peace agreement in 1610 brought gifts from the Spanish and, in 1617, an invitation by the Yaquis for the Jesuit missionaries to stay and teach them.

Banderas wished to unite the Mayo, Opata, Pima, and Yaqui into a state that would be autonomous, or independent of Mexico.

Under the leadership of Jose Maria Leyva, known as Cajemé, the Yaqui continued the struggle to maintain their independence until 1887, when Cajeme was caught and executed.

The war featured a succession of brutalities by the Mexican authorities, including a massacre in 1868, in which the Army burned 150 Yaqui to death inside a church.

[14][15] Some displaced Yaquis joined the ranks of warrior bands, who remained in the mountains carrying on a guerrilla campaign against the Mexican Army.

During the 34-year rule of Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz, the government repeatedly provoked the Yaqui remaining in Sonora to rebellion in order to seize their land for exploitation by investors for both mining and agricultural use.

[14] While there were occasional escapes, the escapees were far from home and, without support or assistance, most died of hunger while begging for food on the road out of the valley toward Córdoba.

[14] The Mexican government established large concentration camps at San Marcos, where the remaining Yaqui families were broken up and segregated.

[14] Individuals were then sold into slavery inside the station and packed into train cars which took them to Veracruz, where they were embarked yet again for the port town of Progreso in the Yucatán.

[14] Given little food, the workers were beaten if they failed to cut and trim at least 2,000 henequen leaves per day, after which they were then locked up every night.

[14] Skirmishes continued until 1927, when the last major battle between the Mexican Army and the Yaqui was fought at Cerro del Gallo Mountain.

[19] On 9 January 1918, the U.S. 10th Cavalry Regiment was involved in a firefight with Yaqui Indians just west of Nogales, Arizona aka Battle of Bear Valley.

[13] In the past, the Yaqui subsisted on agriculture, growing beans, corn and squash (like many of the Indigenous peoples of the region).

[21] Traditionally, a Yaqui house consisted of three rectangular sections: the bedroom, the kitchen, and a living room, called the "portal".

Branches might be used in living room construction for air circulation; a large part of the day was spent here, especially during the hot months.

Since the time of the adoption of Christianity, many Yaquis have a wooden cross placed in front of the house, and special attention is made to its placement and condition during Waresma (Lent).

Many Yaqui have combined such ideas with their practice of Catholicism, and believe that the existence of the world depends on their annual performance of the Lenten and Easter rituals.

The Yaqui deer song is more central to the cultus of its people and is strongly tied to Roman Catholic beliefs and practices.

Occasionally Yaqui men may greet a close male friend with the phrase Haisa sewa?

Yaquis built homes of scrap lumber, railroad ties, and other materials, eking out an existence while taking great pains to continue the Easter Lenten ceremonies so important to community life.

In Guadalupe, Arizona, established in 1904 and incorporated in 1975, more than 44 percent of the population is Native American, and many are trilingual in Yaqui, English, and Spanish.

[citation needed] Realizing the difficulties of developing the community New Pascua without the benefit of federal Tribal status, Ybarra and Valencia met with U.S.

Senator Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.) in the early months of 1977 to urge him to introduce legislation to provide complete federal recognition of the Yaqui people living on the land conveyed to the Pascua Yaqui Association by the United States through the Act of October 8, 1964 (78 Stat.

After extensive hearings and consideration, it was passed by the Senate on April 5, 1978, and became public law, PL 95-375, on September 18, 1978.