Tepehuan

The Tepehuan were Indigenous peoples of the Sierra Madre Occidental, with a heartland in the Guadiana Valley of Durango. Their lands extended into southern Chihuahua and neighbouring regions by the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire.

Franciscans began working among the Tepehuan near Santa Bárbara in 1560. Jesuits entered the northern territory in 1610 and gathered people into mission towns. The Tepehuan rose against Spanish rule in 1616; the revolt was crushed by 1620. By 1708 the Jesuits had established missions including Baborigame, before their expulsion in 1767.