Hopis, Yaquis, and O’odhams in the Spanish Arizona-Sonora Borderlands

Abstract

This chapter explores how three groups—Hopis, Yaquis, and O’odhams—incorporated the Indian-Spanish electoral system. Hopis elected officers during the seventeenth century, but effectively destroyed the Spanish electoral system in 1700 with the massacre at Awat’ovi, the village of the largest Spanish religious and political inroads. Yaquis incorporated the town electoral system to a high degree after missionization began in 1617. But Jesuit abuses and manipulation of Yaqui town electoral processes were among the main causes of the revolt of 1740, a violent uprising to reassert Yaqui autonomy. O’odham experiences with the town electoral system began with Father Kino’s missionary forays in the late seventeenth century. Over the course of the Spanish period, O’odhams in Pimería Alta endured an uneven process of missionization and political change, never fully controlling town elections, largely due to Jesuit interference.