Yuman Rebels of Antigua California: Colonial Resistance in a Hostile Environment?

ABSTRACT Archaeological studies conducted in the north of Baja California document a series of peculiar settlements in Yuman territory, as in the case of site MRA 21, given their relative inaccessibility where human life under current climatic conditions is unsustainable. Radiocarbon dating and evidence from the colonial period when invasion of the Yuman territory began (A.D. 1769) show that indeed there was subjugation of indigenous people, but also demonstrate a tenacious resistance from Yumans who took the most marginal areas of the northeast of the peninsula as an impregnable refuge. Was it their will alone that allowed these Yumans to survive the mission period and the colonialization? Or could “geographic isolation” and environmental factors have led to this resistance being successful to a large extent? This issue is analyzed here, arriving at a new vision of how they probably achieved it.