Yoli

The Yoli, whom the Spanish called the Conchos after the shell-littered Río Conchos, were seminomadic bands in northern Mexico. They held the Río Conchos basin in Chihuahua northward to the Río Bravo and included the Chinarra and Chiz. Their Uto-Aztecan language was so close to Tarahumara that some scholars treat it as a dialect of that language.

They hunted deer and rabbits with bows, fished with nets, gathered plants and farmed, dwelling in huts of wooden frames covered with hides or grass. Franciscan missionaries entered their valleys. In 1684 a Concho headman testified before a Spanish court that he had led dozens of local bands, pointing to loose political ties, while the Chiz stood apart as allies of the Jumanos.