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The Yaqui Wars were a series of between New Spain, and its successor state, the Mexico Republic, against the Yaqui people Natives. The period began in 1533 and lasted until 1929. The Yaqui Wars, along with the Caste War against the Maya people, were the last conflicts of the centuries long Mexican Indian Wars. Over the course of nearly 400 years, the Spanish and the Mexicans repeatedly launched military campaigns into Yaqui territory which resulted in several serious battles and massacres.
In 1828 the office of captain-general was abolished, and Occidente government reasserted its right to tax the Yaqui, as well as proposing a plan for allotting the Yaqui lands. In 1832 Banderas renewed the war against the Mexican authorities, in cooperation with Dolores Gutiérrez, a chief of the Opata people.Spicer, Cycles of Conquest, p. 62 Mexican forces captured Banderas and other Indian leaders after the defeat of Banderas' forces at the battle of Soyopa, Sonora, in December, 1832. In 1833 Banderas and Gutiérrez, along with 10 others, were executed in January 1833. Banderas remained a powerful and admired symbol of Yaqui resistance to foreign domination.
During the 1830s and 1840s the Yaqui often allied with Manuel María Gándara, a former conservative governor of Sonora, in his struggle against José de Urrea for control of Sonora. In 1838 this led to Urrea capturing the coastal salt deposits of the Yaqui and transferring them to state control.Spicer, Cycles of Conquest, p. 65
In 1857 Gándara was removed from power by Ignacio Pesqueira. The Yaqui under the leadership of Mateo Marquin, also known as Jose Maria Barquin, were among the chief allies of Gándara in his attempt to regain control of Sonora. Initially most of the fighting was in the Guaymas River valley. However, in 1858 Cócorit became a point of violence. The Mayos joined the Yaqui in waging war against the Mexican government, and destroyed Santa Cruz, Sonora.
In August 1860, bands of Yaqui and Mayo insurgents, some 1,000 or 1,200 strong, marched towards Guaymas, burning and leveling Mexican settlements as they advanced. The citizens of Guaymas fortified the town, declaring a state of siege, and armed 350 men in its defense. The Prefect of Guaymas dispatched a courier to the Governor at Hermosillo, demanding additional aid.
The dispatch reached Hermosillo on the 31st of August. Governor Pesquiera, with a force of sixty horse and eighty infantry, promptly left Hermosillo. He intended to travel to El Cachora to gather an additional 300 troops, but the Yaqui ambushed him and his troops en route at Jacalitos, a small village about forty-two miles from Hermosillo.
The inexperienced Mexican troops fled the battle, leaving Pesquiera and General Angel Trias of Chihuahua, who accompanied Pesquiera, with some eight or ten of the body guard to face 600 well armed Yaqui. Pesquiera and Angel Trias eventually succeeded in escaping and joined the forces at El Cachora. Following this defeat, Pesqueira invaded Mayo and Yaqui territory in 1862, and forced them to accept peace terms. The peace was negotiated at Torim, Sonora. The terms of the peace allowed a pardon to the leaders of the Yaqui, but required a military post to be established at Agua Caliente, Sonora, for the Mexicans to control the actions of the Yaqui.
Pesqueira then appointed Garcia Morales to lead a campaign against the Yaqui. In 1868, 600 Yaqui surrendered at Cócorit. The Mexicans held 400 Yaqui in a church, and when they felt the Yaqui were not being cooperative enough, fired artillery on the church causing a fire that killed 120 men, women and children, an incident that came to be known as the Bacum massacre. This was representative of the harsh military attacks on the Yaqui, who accepted peace terms to avoid continued massacres.Spicer, Cycles of Conquest, p. 67 Affairs such as this drove many of the natives to Pascua Yaqui, while others were deported by the Mexicans or slavery.
In 1876 the Yaqui leader José Maria Leyba Peres, or Cajemé, established a small independent republic in Sonora. By then there were only about 4,000 undefeated Yaqui, and they attempted to defend their county by building the fortification called El Añil (The Indigo). El Añil was located near the village of Vícam, in the middle of a thick forest and on the left bank of the Yaqui river. The fortification consisted of a wide moat. Food and livestock were stockpiled within the fortification, and to assure a source of water, there was a large trench to the river. There was also a wooden stockade with walls made of thick trunks of trees placed side by side, and woven with branches providing an enclosure where the 4000 Yaqui people were protected.Troncoso ( Francisco de Borja del Paso y Troncoso), pp. 117–24
Agustin Ortiz, whose brother Carlos was then the governor of Sonora, led an attack from Navojoa to Capetemaya in 1882, with the intention of capturing Cajemé. Cajemé was wounded in the Battle of Capetemaya, but the forces of Ortiz were routed. Fighting in the Mayo territories continued until 1884 when they agreed submitted to Mexican authority. However, Cajemé continued to insist on his independence.
In 1885 Loreto Molino, a Yaqui who had previously been one of Cajemé's chief lieutenants or teniente-general, led a raid from Guaymas against Cajemé's home. The house was burned down, but Cajemé was in the south at the time and thus survived the attack.Spicer, Cycles of Conquest, p. 71 The repercussions of this raid, which was sanctioned by the local Mexican government, led to a resumption of full-scale war between the Yaqui and the Mexican government. In March 1886, three columns, each about 1,200 strong, were set in motion against the Yaquis. Every Mexican town or point of importance was fortified and garrisoned to resist any hostile Yaqui forces. The mitrailleuse is reported to have been used by the Mexican Federal Forces against the well organized Yaqui forces. Three of them were used, with two mitrailleuse under the command of the forces of Generals Leiva and Marcos Carillo, and one under the command of General CamanoH. H. Bancroft, History of Mexico, Vol. VI, p. 462. (The History Company, San Francisco, 1888)
In May, 1886, the Mexican army began a concentrated series of military campaigns against the main Yaqui fortress of El Añil. General Carrillo, with 1,200 soldiers, initially attacked El Añil in a fierce battle to dislodge the indigenous Yaqui forces. General Ángel Martínez brought up an additional 1,500 Mexican soldiers, and concentrated his forces to finish the campaign with a decisive blow. El Añil was captured on May 12, 1886. Only a few Yaqui soldiers escaped by fleeing deep into the mountains, leaving 200 dead, and some 2,000 people, consisting primarily of the elderly, children, and the sick. The losses of the Mexican forces were 10 officers and 59 troops.Troncoso, pp. 124–29 Following the battle, the people living in the villages of , , Bacum, Cócorit were amnestied by the Mexican government, in return for giving up their weapons. In return, the people in the villages were given clothes and food. The bulk of the remaining Yaqui soldiers were now unable to make war directly on Mexican military forces, so hid in the mountains, while being persecuted and systematically decimated. At this point, Cajemé sent a note to General Juan Hernández saying"
" Desde luego nos someteremos todos a la obediencia del gobierno, bajo la condición de que dentro de 15 días se retiren todas sus fuerzas que están en el río Yaqui para Guaymas y Hermosillo, de no hacerlo así, pueden ustedes obrar de manera que les convenga; yo, en unión de mi nación, estoy dispuesto a hacer hasta la última defensa."
" We will all submit in obedience to government, under the condition that within 15 days the withdraw all their forces at the Rio Yaqui to Guaymas and Hermosillo. Failing to do so, you can act in a way that suits them the. I, together with my nation, am willing to continue fighting until the last defense."
Nearly one year later, Cajemé was captured in the village of San José de Guaymas, about 10 miles outside of the Port of Guaymas. Cajemé was eventually transported to the mouth of the Yaqui River, and paraded through many of the Yaqui villages to show that he had been captured. On April 23, 1887, Cajemé was executed at Tres Cruces de Chumampaco. Juan Maldonado took Cajemé's place, and continued a guerrilla war in the Sierra del Bacatete. The Yaqui towns along the Rio Yaqui became mostly deserted, with many of the inhabitants fleeing into the surrounding mountains, and to other states in Mexico, including Chihuahua and Sinaloa.
15,000 to 60,000 Yaquis perished in deportations in 1900 through 1911. Following the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, Yaqui warriors joined all of the armies of the major rebel factions. They also began resettling their ancestral lands along the Rio Yaqui. In 1911, Díaz was exiled and President Francisco Madero took office. He is said to have promised the Yaqui people compensation for their losses but by 1920, when the main phase of the war ended, the promises were forgotten. By 1916, Mexican , such as Álvaro Obregón, began establishing estates on Yaqui land during the revolution and this led to renewed hostilities between the natives and the military.
It was during this period of the conflict that the United States Army fought the last battle of the American Indian Wars. In January 1918, a small group of about thirty natives were intercepted by Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry, just across the international border, near Arivaca, Arizona. In the thirty-minute skirmish that followed, the Yaqui commander was killed and a handful of others were taken prisoner. The last major engagement of the Yaqui Wars came almost ten years later in what is called "The Yaqui Revolt of 1926–1928." The battle began in April 1927 at Cerro del Gallo (Hill of the Rooster. Yaqui name: Totoi-ta-kuse'epo). On April 28, 1927, the Los Angeles Times reported that Mexican Federal Troops had captured 415 Yaquis, including 26 men, 214 women, and 175 children. It was reported in the Mexican newspaper El Universal that because the Yaqui had withdrawn in the mountains, the Mexican Federal Staff had decided to undertake a major offensive against them. Operations would be directed by General Obregón, assisted by General Manzo.El Universal, September 28, 1927 According to another report published on October 5, 1927, 12,000 "federales" were soon to present in the state of Sonora, equipped with 8mm machine guns, airplanes and poison gas.El Universal, October 05, 1927 On October 2, 1927, the Los Angeles Times reported that General Francisco R. Manzo, Commander of the federal forces in Sonora, had informed President Calles that he expected the Yaqui chieftain, Luis Matius, would soon surrender after holding out in the Bacatete Mountains for more than a year."Surrender Due in Yaqui Strife: Leader Expected to Accept Mexican Terms Today," Los Angeles Times, October 2, 1927. After that, some minor warfare continued into 1929 but the violence was quelled mainly by bombings from the Mexican Air Force. The Mexican Army also established posts at all of the Yaqui settlements. This action prevented future conflict.
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