O'dam

O’dam is the name used by Southern Tepehuan people of the Sierra Madre Occidental. Their homeland in southern Durango consists of mountain slopes, deep valleys and scattered communities, extending toward the neighbouring country of Nayarit and Zacatecas. Families cultivate maize and other crops while drawing on the plants and animals of the sierra. Spanish mining, missions and demands for labour transformed the region. People who resisted colonial control withdrew into more inaccessible mountains, and crops were destroyed to compel labour. In 1616 a major Tepehuan uprising spread through Nueva Vizcaya, attacking Spanish towns and mining settlements before colonial forces suppressed it.

The later city of Durango lies here.