Guasave

The Guasave, also called Tamazula, were a nomadic coastal people of the marshy estuaries and lagoons of northwestern Sinaloa. They lived from fish, clams, pitahaya fruit and wild harvests, knew how to farm but did not hunt, went without clothing, and were noted as taller than the other tribes of the coast.

Their speech, like that of their neighbours the Achire, was unlike any other language recorded in Sinaloa; some ethnologists class them with the Seri of the Sonora coast, which would place them in the Hokan sphere. In 1590 the Jesuits founded the mission of San Pedro y Pablo de Guasave among them, the first permanent Spanish establishment in their lagoon country.