Sotz'leb

The Sotz'leb, or Tzotzil, were a Maya people of the central Chiapas highlands. Their communities included hilltop polities ruled by lords called aghauh, who traded highland salt and exported amber and quetzal feathers to Tenochtitlan.

In 1522 the lord of Zinacantán submitted to the Spanish and helped subdue his neighbours, while Chamula and Huixtlán resisted and their people fled into the wilds. Disease and forced labour under the encomienda reduced the population; the Sotz'leb revolted in 1528 and again in 1712.