Investor Presentaiton

Tepehuanes The Tepehuán Indians were the indigenous group that inhabited the most extensive area among the Sierra Madre native groups. Linguistically, the Tepehuanes belonged to the Piman division of the Uto-Aztecan linguistic stock. Anthropologists have divided this group into southern and northern groups who speak different dialects of the Tepehuán language. The southern Tepehuán language varies considerably from that of the Northern Tepehuán (whose speakers live in Chihuahua). The Southern Tepehuán inhabited an extensive region of the Sierra Madre Mountains in parts of present-day Jalisco, Nayarit, Zacatecas and Durango. The territory of the Tepehuanes is believed to have stretched as far north as Parral in Chihuahua and as far south as Río Grande de Santiago in Jalisco. In Zacatecas, the Tepehuán inhabited the region around Sombrerete in the west central portion of the state. The first Jesuits, bearing gifts of seeds, tools, clothing and livestock, went to work among the Tepehuanes in 1596 and converted most of them by 1616. It is believed that the Tepehuán Indians received their name from the Náhuatl terms tepetl, "mountain," and huan, "at the junction of." Thus, they were "mountain people." The Tepehuanes did not become involved in operations against the Spaniards in the Chichimeca War. The historian Charlotte M. Gradie has discussed in great deal the Tepehuanes and their famous revolt that began in 1616 and ravaged much of Durango. 15

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