Yoreme

The Yoreme, also known as the Mayo, inhabit the river valleys of southern Sonora and northern Sinaloa. Their communities have long lived along the Mayo River and its neighbouring waterways, between the mountains and the Gulf of California. Farming and the use of river and coastal resources sustained a people closely related in language to the Yaqui.

Jesuit missions were established in the Mayo valley in 1614. During the eighteenth century disputes over labour, land and the authority of missionaries deepened. In 1740 Mayo communities joined the Yaqui in a revolt that spread to the Fuerte and Sinaloa river regions. The uprising revealed the strains of colonial rule, while Yoreme communities continued to preserve their own language and traditions. The revolt brought together peoples of the adjoining river valleys.