Náayeri

The Náayeri, better known by their outside name of Cora, are an Indigenous people of the canyon country of Nayarit in northwestern Mexico; Nayarit takes its name from their plural self-name, náayerite. They farm maize, beans and amaranth on mountain slopes, and their language belongs, with that of their Huichol neighbours, to the Corachol branch of the Uto-Aztecan family.

Their old faith centred on Tayau, the sun father whose priests, the tonatí, once held the highest authority in the villages, and on Tetewan, goddess of the moon, rain and the underworld.

The Cora kept friars out of their mountains: a Spanish expedition failed in 1716, and only in 1722 did a larger campaign force them to submit. Many accepted baptism, and their later religion blended Catholic devotion with the older worship of sun, rain and maize.