Kino and O'odham Riders
Magdalena City Hall Mural 

To the Pimas [O'odham], Kino was the Great White Father. They loved him, he loved them, and they were ready to die for each other. To him they flocked as if drawn by a magnet. From northeast, north, northwest, and west they beat trails to the door of the missionary wizard. Chiefs and warriors went to attend councils; to take part in church fiestas; to be baptized; to assist in planting,  harvesting, and roundups. 

Dr. Herbert E. Bolton
The Padre on Horseback:A Sketch of Eusebio Francisco Kino, S.J.

Beginning of Kino's Fight Against Colonial Exploitation

Leaving Mexico on November 20, 1686, .... I went to Guadalaxara, whence I set out on December 16, having obtained from the Royal Audiencia the royal provision ... ...

I asked for and obtained from the Royal Audiencia of Guadalaxara, ... a royal provision to the effect that during five years no natives whatever should be taken out with seals to work, from the places where I should go for their conversion.

I requested this royal provision at a very opportune time, for there had just arrived from Spain the very Catholic royal cedula which orders that for twenty years recent converts to our holy faith shall not be taken away with seals [orders from civil Spanish officials requiring force labor drafts of native people for work in Spanish mines and ranches}. This royal cedula is dated at Buen Retiro, May 14, of the said year of 1686.

Eusebio Francisco Kino, S.J.
"Royal Provision and Royal Cedula Which Favor The New Conversions" 
Chapter II Book I Part I (1687- 1699)
"Favores Celestiales"
"Kino's Historical Memoir of Pimería Alta; A Contemporary Account of the
Beginnings of California, Sonora, and Arizona" [Vol. 2] 1919
Dr. Herbert E. Bolton, Translator and Editor

For Kino's Defense of the O'odham People During The Tubutama Uprising and Afterwards in Mexico City 1695-1696

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Ride of Justice and Peace

The Lasting Friendship Between Kino And El Coro
Frank C. Lockwood

The firm friendship existing between Father Kino and El Coro the Sobaipuris Chief at Quiburi lasted as long as they both lived. In the spring of 1703, Captain Coro and his people from the San Pedro, together with many other Pimas from the north and west, came to Cocóspera and Remedios to aid in the building of the new churches there. These faithful Indians came with their families distances of fifty leagues or more, and remained for weeks giving friendly assistance to the Padre in his building program. [115]

In 1705, a certain crooked military officer, who had recently secured the office of Captain-lieutenant of the Pimeria, came to Santa Maria to barter with the Indians for corn (for his own private enrichment). His treatment of the orderly and well-behaved Pimas was so overbearing and dishonest that El Coro rebuked him, telling him that by thus abusing the Indians he ran a great risk of causing them to withdraw into the mountains, or to unite with the Apaches in warfare against the settlements. This greatly enraged the corrupt Lieutenant and before the chief officers of the province he accused Captain Coro and Francisco Pacheco, governor of Cocóspera, declaring that they were in revolt, and that they were coming with disaffected Pimas from all parts of the Pimeria to make war in Sonora. This false and vicious charge spread consternation all along the frontier. General Juan de Retana and the Father Visitor, Antonio Leal, were so foolish as to believe the lying Lieutenant, and, in a panic, they ordered Kino to withdraw from the missions in the Pimeria and to bring away with him so far as possible all the valuable property and furnishings of the churches. General Terán wrote to Kino that he had received word (from the same false Lieutenant) that El Coro was at the Great ranch of El Siboda killing cattle and horses, and threatening to murder the Fathers and do all sorts of outrageous deeds. These reports were all pure lies; but to refute them and counter-act the terrific shock that resulted all through the Province required all of Kino's tact and patience, and resulted in the disruption of the work of the missions for weeks.
 
Kino asked El Coro to come to Cocóspera, and there, before the very eyes of the excited military officers who had come to suppress a revolt that had never existed even in the minds of the faithful and maligned chieftains, he was able to present El Coro and his people, all friendly and quiet, at the Easter services. The infamous Lieutenant was discharged. Kino at once sent the two accused Pima chiefs to General Juan de Retana bearing a letter from him. The General entertained the two Pima captains most generously and took prompt steps to make amends to them. They were sent back loaded with gifts, and all was harmonious once more in Pimeria Alta. Irretrievable injury was done to the cause of Christianity, however; for the excitement that [116] had been aroused and the falsehoods that had gone abroad resulted as usual in preventing the arrival of the additional missionaries so long promised and so much needed. That two strong men of different races can sustain through long years and trying circumstances a true and staunch friendship is shown by references that Kino makes to Captain Coro only a year before the Padre's death. ....

Kino respected and trusted the Indians. He writes about them in the same tenor, with the same seriousness and dignity of expression, that he would employ in commenting upon an European, or a fellow townsman. In reading some of his entries concerning the captains, governors and justices in this or that Indian pueblo, one is puzzled to know whether these leading men are Spaniards or Indians.

Frank C. Lockwood
With Padre Kino on the Trail
Chapter Section: The Lasting Friendship Between Kino And El Coro
To view and download Lockwood's entire book, click
https://uair.library.arizona.edu/system/files/usain/download/azu_h9791k55z_l81_w.pdf

Wolves Attack The Fold 
Herbert E. Bolton
1703 - 1706

New worries quickly rapped at his door. More correctly speaking, they were old worries which, like ill-natured curs, having slept for a time, now awoke to bark at his heels again. Kino had scarcely returned to Dolores when he was disturbed by "some new and calumnious hostility." The knockers were busy again. The trouble was that Satan, "by means of some persons unfavorable to these new conversions, who already on many other occasions had opposed them ... to advance their own cause and that of the Common Enemy, hinted it about that the natives of this Pimería were so evil-natured that they were plotting to kill one of the missionary fathers." But Kino had loyal friends. Captain Becerra made investigations. Finding no evidence of hostility, he branded the story as "one of the usual idle and calumnious tales of those ill-disposed toward this Pima nation."

But the gossips soon found something else to talk about. In September |530| (1704) it was reported that Chief Duck Tail (Cola de Pato), governor of Cocóspora, was plotting trouble. Duck Tail had said, so it was rumored, "that with the staff of office he was not a man, but that with weapons he was one." Rumor added that he had withdrawn to the mountains to assemble gandules and attack some place. Leal was disturbed and he asked Kino about it. "Over here it is said that the governor of Cocóspora has sent your Reverence the staff of office, saying that he intended to avenge the death of his kinsfolk, and that he has revolted with all Cocóspora, I beg your Reverence for information."

With his usual energy Kino proceeded to scotch the stories. He would expose the gossips. He would confront the tale bearers with the accused. He would take Duck Tail to Cucurpe for a hearing. "Knowing how foreign to all charity all these darnels were," he summoned the chief and his two sons, "both good cowboys." The call was promptly obeyed, and with Cola de Pato and his sons Kino rode to Cucurpe - a diverting picture they made - "that his calumniators might see him and be satisfied in the presence of many Spaniards." He convinced the investigators. This done he was on the point of continuing to Guépaca, to convince Leal and all the rest. Spaniards at Cucurpe, however, assured him that this was not necessary, "saying that they would there satisfy the father rector, the father visitor, and the alcalde mayor in regard to the innocence and loyalty of the governor of Cocóspora."

Duck Tail was vindicated, and Kino was cheered by many friendly letters. "I told you so," the chorus now rang. "I have always been confident that this about the governor of Cocóspora is false, and that they are powder flashes and whirlwinds of lies, whose source your Reverence knows. I have never given them credit," wrote Captain Salazar from Bacanuche. "I greatly rejoice that ... the imagined or feigned revolt has gone up in smoke," Gilg wrote from Matápe. The friendliness of the Pimas was now demonstrated by another triumph over the Apaches. "The victory has been notable," wrote Gilg. "Blessed be God, who again has rescued the Pimas, proving that they are not such as they wish perforce to make them out."

When in trouble Kino was usually able to stem the tide of criticism |531| by putting on a good show. And his Pimas were willing and loyal actors. The year ended with a Christmas celebration at Cocóspora which was both a new vindication of the Pimas and a love feast between them and the soldiery.

The Master of Dolores had triumphed again. But it was a constant fight. The wolves could be frightened off, but they always lurked about. The New Year brought a personal attack on Kino and an outrage on his missions. An "indiscreet lieutenant" - Father Eusebio does not tell his name - spread the report that Kino had sent out native officials to take Indians from other pueblos to Dolores, offering presents or other inducements. The "indiscreet lieutenant" did not stop here. He proceeded to restore the immigrants to their former villages. He went to Dolores "repeatedly, violently, and with great harshness, many stripes and serious threats of hanging, of death, etc., and took from us many Indians, more than ninety on one occasion alone." [3]

Kino was up in arms. This was the worst thing that had ever happened to him. He demanded an investigation. In the course of it the native justices of Dolores denied the charge of gifts and coaxing, The immigrants were then taken aside and questioned. All except three declared that no bribes or other inducements had been offered; they had moved to Dolores of their own free will, and they begged to be permitted to remain there. Nevertheless, a few days later, in Kino's absence, many of the immigrants were taken away, again "with much violence, with insults, harsh punishment, stripes, and threats of death." But most of them, Kino wrote with great satisfaction four years later, "after a little time returned to this pueblo of ... Dolores, where they are found to this day."

Many persons were scandalized over these outrages. Polici wrote Kino, "On the one hand, I am greatly grieved by the persecution, so iniquitous, and on the other hand I envy your Reverence your patience and virtue." Father Minutuli went to Guépaca to protest, for his mission of Tubutama had been raided. Father Leal "having investigated everything ... was amazed." Incensed, he appealed to the alcalde mayor for redress. |532|

Before this offense was punished another trouble for Kino was raised. Coro was now under fire. The same "indiscreet lieutenant" went to Santa Maria to barter for maize, boasting "that for this he had requested and obtained the lieutenancy of this Pimería." Such things have happened more recently and in other countries than Mexico. Chief Coro advised him not to treat the Pimas so harshly, lest they flee to the mountains, or even join the Jocomes and Apaches. Angry at what he regarded as impudence, the lieutenant spread a new tale. He reported that Coro and Duck Tail were in rebellion, and about to attack Sonora. Everybody was excited and urged the missionaries to flee for their lives.

The anxiety of the superiors is revealed by a communication written by Leal to Kino on March 25, 1705. "I desired a letter from there, because of the bad news which has arrived that Coro was coming to kill fathers and whomsoever he might encounter. I heard of this last night and I immediately reported to the alcalde mayor, who now will believe, and to General Retana. I am awaiting replies. . .. If there is danger, . . . set out at once and secure the things of the churches and whatever is possible. . . . If you should have any news regarding the matter, impart it immediately to the fathers, and secure their lives and whatever else is possible."

Meanwhile soldiers started for the scene of the supposed rebellion to save the lives of the fathers and punish the offenders. Miguel de Abajo, alcalde mayor of Sonora, set out for Cocóspora with twelve soldiers. At Bacanuche he learned from Kino that the rumor was a false alarm. Two days later he reached Cocóspora and found Cola de Pato and all his people quiet and friendly. Kino went to Cocóspora and summoned Coro thither. The chief came in friendship, bringing a following of his people.

Terán, with soldiers and citizens from Opodepe, started for the scene of the supposed revolt. When they reached Cocóspora they found Kino calm, and Coro and Cola de Pato "perfectly quiet."

The affair ended in another love feast. All now went together to spend Holy Week and Easter at Dolores, where a great concourse of citizens, soldiers, and Indians were assembled. Kino had put on another impressive show for the benefit of his Pimas. To complete |533| the triumph he sent Coro and Cola de Pato to Sonora to see General Retana. The General regaled them, "with much clothing, cloth, skirts, hats, knives, ribbons, etc., and they returned very well content consoled, and edified." When the alcalde mayor removed the "indiscreet lieutenant" Kino's victory was complete. By his generalship he had passed another crisis. The Indians were restored to their pueblos.

Herbert E. Bolton 
"Wolves Attack The Fold" 
Excerpt from Chapter 139
"Rim of Christendom:
A Biography of Eusebio Francisco Kino: Pacific Coast Pioneer"

Footnotes
[3] Kino, "Favores Celestiales," Parte III, Lib. iv, Caps. 4-9; "Hist. Mem.," II, 102-113 passim.
[4] Kino, "Favores Celestiales," Parte IV, Lib. ii, Cap. 7; "Hist. Mem.," II, 150-151. Soon a fifth Italian, Father Crescoli, joined the group for a time.


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Wolves Attack the Fold

Kino - The Peacemaker
Magdalena City Hall Mural

"Of Some New And Calumnious Hostility And
Opposition To The New Conversions" 
Eusebio Francisco Kino
1703 - 1706

Chapter IV Book IV Part III (1703- 1704)
Of Some New And Calumnious Hostility And Opposition To The New Conversions 

The common enemy of all good, and especially of the salvation of souls, by means of some persons unfavorable to these new conversions, who already on many other occasions had opposed them, although always very wrongly, to advance their own cause and that of |102| the common enemy, bruited it about that the natives of this Pimeria were so evil natured that they were plotting to kill one of the missionary fathers. At the same time Captain Don Antonio Bezerra (with twenty soldiers of the presidio of Janos selected for incorporation with the fifty soldiers of this presidio of Sonora, whose captain, Don Jacinto de Fuen Saldaña, was very discreet), himself at once argued and maintained that it was one of the usual idle and calumnious speeches of those ill disposed to this Pima nation.

Nevertheless, extended investigations were made in regard to the matter, but no trace whatever was found of the least alteration or evil intention of any of these Pima natives, nor had it entered into the thoughts of any of them to wish to kill or injure their missionary fathers or the captain of the presidio, ....  And with these refutations, after satisfactorily clearing up the calumnious charges that these Pimas were altered when they were not so, but most quiet, peaceful, and affable, Captain Don Antonio Vezerra returned to his presidio of Janos with his twenty soldiers, and all good people were astounded at so many wiles used by the common enemy to destroy and hinder the welfare of souls. |103|

Chapter V Book IV Part III (1703- 1704)
Another Very Grave Calumny Against The Governor Of My Third Pueblo Of Nuestra Señora Del Pilar De Cocospera And Against The Welfare Of These New Conversions

Captain Christobal Granillo de Salazar, deputy alcalde mayor at the Real de Bacanuchi, on September 13 of this year, 1704, wrote me the following, naming for me the three disaffected pueblos whence issued these calumnies and wherein he was not given entire credit:
"Some gossip is current here, and I shall appreciate it if your Reverence will tell me the truth of the matter, so that the wicked enemy may not accomplish his purpose of disturbing these new conversions. It is to the effect that the governor of Cocospera said that with the staff of office he was not a man, but that with weapons he was, and that he had with drawn to the mountains to assemble men to attack some place." ....

This calumny was noised about in such a manner that in a letter of September 17 the father visitor, Antonio Leal, wrote me the following:
"Over here it is said that the governor of Cocospera has sent your Reverence the staff of office, saying that he intended to avenge the death of his kinsfolk, and that he had revolted with all Cocospera. I beg your Reverence for information."

And I, knowing how foreign to all charity were all these darnels, proceeded at once to summon the said governor of Cocospera with his two sons, one, named Matías, who is a fiscal, and the other, called Joseph, who is steward of my supplies at Cocospera. As both were good cowboys, all these preceding weeks they had helped me to deliver two hundred cattle to Captain Don Gerónimo Colonmo. On September 20 I went with the said governor of |104| Cocospera and his two sons to the neighboring pueblo of Cucurpe that his calumniators might see him and be satisfied in the presence of many Spaniards ....  |105|

Chapter II. Book I Part IV (1705-1706)
Of The First And Very Great Persecution Which Occurred In These Three Months Of January, February, And March, Especially Against This Pueblo Of Nuestra Señora De Los Dolores

An indiscreet lieutenant gave out that from this pueblo of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores we had sent the justices to draw the Indians from some pueblos to add them to others, even ourselves offering gifts therefor. [92] In view of this they accused and persecuted and molested us very sorely, and the royal justice, the said lieutenant, accompanied by others, came repeatedly, violently and with great harshness, many stripes, and serious threats of hanging, of death, etc., and took from us many Indians, more than ninety on one occasion alone. The justices and the governor of this pueblo said that neither by gifts nor in any other way had we |119| taken those Indians from other pueblos, but that of their own accord, for very good reasons which they alleged, free as they were, they had moved to the pueblo of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores. It was decided to take them aside and ask them whether they had been brought here by gifts, or coaxed, and where or in which of the pueblos they would rather live; and all except three, two of whom afterward remained, said that no one coaxed or sent for them, but that they had all moved to this pueblo of their own free will, and asked that they be left here in quietude, where they were quite content. Nevertheless, after some days many of these poor natives were taken away in my absence, with much violence and with insults, harsh punishment with stripes and threats of death, etc. But most of them, after a little time, would return to this pueblo of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, where they are found to this day.

The persecution passed on, even to the interior ...  Our people were greatly afflicted, for this indiscreet lieutenant wished to remove them from their very convenient posts and very rich lands, to take them for his own interests and prohibited service to other posts less convenient for those peoples. This persecution took away from the houses of the new missions the provisions, wheat, and maize, the tierce of salt, the sheep and goats, and the poor weeping people, the intention being to go on another occasion to take away also the cattle and the droves of mares, and to leave |120| everything destroyed, even to a chapel in which we said mass and where the Christian doctrine was taught and prayers said morning and evening. Our persecutors most rudely burnt it for us, until our Lord vouchsafed that, some prudent and Christian persons interposing, the people returned to their new missions ... |121|

Chapter III Book I Part IV (1705-1706)
A Second Very Grave, Unjust, And Calumnious Persecution Of The Two Principal Captains Of These New Conversions

When in these months the indiscreet lieutenant of this Pimeria came on to Santa Maria to his bartering for their maize (for he said that for this he had requested and obtained the lieutenancy of this Pimeria), Captain Coro, who in baptism was called and is called Antonio Leal, advised him not to vex so often and inflict his ill treatment so rigorously upon the poor Pimas, who gave him no cause therefor, since he might run the risk of their retiring to the hills or to the hostile Jocomes and Apaches. [93]

He was so angry at these words, although very just, that he accused Captain Coro and - the captain and governor of Cocospera, called Francisco Pacheco (commonly Cola de Palo) before the Señor alcalde mayor, and before the father visitor, and before General Juan de Retana, who had come on business of the presidio of this province, saying that they had revolted and were involved in the revolt of the greater part of this Pimeria, and that they were on the point of coming to attack this province of Sonora. Now they gave us these reports, although very incorrect, which caused much commotion and gave much concern to all this province of Sonora.

Again they ordered us to depart from the Pimeria and to take away and secure the things of the churches, etc., [94] for on the twenty-fifth of March Father Visitor Antonio Leal wrote me the following letter:
"I greatly desired a letter from there, because of the ill news which has come that Coro was coming to kill fathers |122| and whomsoever he might encounter. I heard of this last night and immediately I reported to the alcalde mayor, who now will believe, and to General Retana. I am awaiting replies. Your Reverence's letter has consoled me greatly, for, although El Coro may have these feelings, according to your Reverence's letter it is not so bad. God grant that he may go no farther. ... If there is danger, which your Reverence may discern, set out immediately ... " Thus far the very ill-informed Father Visitor Antonio Leal.

And in the same manner the very ill-informed Captain Juan Diaz de Teran, who a few months ago ceased to be lieutenant of this Pimeria, wrote me of his very indiscreet successor [96] as follows:
"I arrived at this your Reverence's house in safety, thank God. On the way I happened to receive a letter from the actual captain-lieutenant of this Pimeria in which he asks me for an escort, because El Coro was at the ranch of El Siboda killing droves of mares and cattle. And they say he was going to kill fathers and do other shameful deeds. Some say that he says he has many people from the interior in his following. May our Lord hinder them in purposes so evil and guard me your Reverence. " Thus far Captain Theran.

But all was a lie, a fiction, a chimera, a calumny, as shall soon be seen, and could |123| not serve as anything but a trick for the common enemy, to hinder, as always, the coming of the missionary fathers so necessary, whereby the eternal salvation of souls may be obstructed and delayed. ...

Chapter IV Book I Part IV (1705-1706)
Conclusive Proof That There Is Not The Least Trace Of The Pretended Revolt Which Was Reported, Either By The Above Mentioned Captains, Or By Any Other Of This Pimeria. ....

General Juan de Retana, captain of the Presidio of San Francisco de Conchos, having come to this province of Sonora, on the twenty-fifth of March wrote me the following:
"..... I thank your Reverence heartily for the remembrances of the Pimas and also of those of the interior, to whom I return them with all affection. And because of the news Father Leal gives me, I beseech you that when you can, with the zeal which is ever present with your Reverence for the service of both Majesties and for the good and quietude of those natives, you will despatch on my behalf a message to Captain Coro, assuring him on behalf of the governor of this kingdom and on mine in his name, that he and his shall still be watched over and protected by us. If there be any remedy required for any grievance from the lieutenant or from other Spaniards, etc., and if it is true that some Indians were transferred against their will to another pueblo, I am not pleased with the state of things."

On the second of April the Señor alcalde mayor, Don Miguel de Abajo, wrote me the following:
"I have just arrived at this Valley of Bacanuchi, bringing with me twelve soldiers, for with the news and letters of the very reverend father visitor as well as of other persons, concerning these countries, it has been necessary for me to leave home unseasonably, with distress and disgust enough for the great [disturbance] which the report of the revolt of this Pima nation has occasioned in all the land. But having arrived at this valley and found one of your Reverence's letters written to General Juan Matheo, [98] by its news I am very much pleased. And because the day after tomorrow I hope to arrive to render my obedience to Your Most Reverend Paternity at the pueblo of Cocospera, I shall appreciate it if your Reverence will order Captain Coro summoned, and his chiefs and all the other governors, with whom I have a desire to talk, as also to see your Reverence with all good health. May our Lord preserve it for you." |125|

And two days afterward, on April 4, his Grace wrote me the following:
"I have just arrived at this pueblo of Cocospera, where I have received your Reverence's letter; and with that, and with seeing the Indians, I wish to inform your Reverence that I have had especial comfort. I am sorry not to have had the pleasure of seeing your Reverence ..."

And the citizens of the Valley of Opodepe, who with the former lieutenant, Juan Diaz de Teran, also had come in on this west side to join him with the soldiers who had come, and were to join him on the return from Bazera[ca] and Janos to quiet the much talked-of revolt, which was found to be chimerical, because, having entered Cocospera, I summoned Captain Coro and he came immediately with his very friendly people, and with Captain Pacheco and the governor of Cocospera.

They found him there with his people, perfectly quiet, and we all came most amicably to spend the Holy Week and holy Easter-tide at the pueblo of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, which was all celebrated with all solemnity, and with a great concourse of Spaniards and soldiers, as well as of the very numerous people who came |126| from the interior ...

And his Grace [Retana] on the twenty-first of April wrote me the following:
"Yesterday, the twentieth instant, I received your Reverence's two letters of the seventh and fifteenth, by the captains and governors Francisco Pacheco and El Coro, called Antonio Leal, by whom I reply to the two above-mentioned letters. I appreciate greatly the news which your Reverence is pleased to give me, to the effect that all the Pima nation is in all peace and quietude. The chiefs, Francisco Pacheco and El Coro, give me the same assurance; and without a doubt your Reverence must have taken great pleasure in the assemblage of the Señor alcalde, the citizens of Opodepe, the soldiers, the numerous Pimas from round about these pueblos, and the heathen from long distances in the interior, for Easter. ...  
I have regaled and bestowed such gifts upon Pacheco and El Coro as this remote situation permits; ... "

 In many other letters his Grace wrote me a thousand courteous things, and said that the indiscreet lieutenant should be removed, on account of the great importance of obviating chimeras that disturb the children, as his Grace says, to the hurt of their souls, through impeding the coming of the father ministers of the gospel. Besides, there were the juridical certifications by the Señor alcalde mayor and by the same lieutenant, of the good state of the Pimeria, and that in it there is not the slightest trace of the much and falsely talked-of revolt.

"Favores Celestiales"
By Eusebio Francisco Kino, S.J.

"Kino's Historical Memoir of Pimería Alta; A Contemporary Account of the
Beginnings of California, Sonora, and Arizona" [Vol. 2] 1919
Dr. Herbert E. Bolton, Translator and Editor
Excerpts from
Part III Book IV and Part IV Book I 

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Favores Celestiales Oppostion to Missions 1703 To 1706

"Padre Kino and the Trail to the Pacific"
Jack Steffan
For an acccurate historical fiction account based on Kino's writings tells about Kino's and the O'odham strong friendship and mutual trust and the attempts by Spanish miners and ranchers to provoke war with the O'odham to end Kino's missions. 

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Chapter 11 - The Plan for New Spain page
The Spanish miners and ranchers campaign of vilification in their attempts to provoke war between the O'odham and Spanish begins the chapter  In one instance while Kino was away from Mission Dolores, the Spanish opposition led by a newly appointed Lieutenant with threats of death drove 90 O'odham people away from their Mission Dolores homes - all would return except one.

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Chapter 12 - General Manje Writes a Report pageThe story is told about Manje's December 1706 petition to the Royal Audiencia in Guadalajara and to the bishiop in Durango. Manje along with other Spanish leaders petition for a redistribution of mission lands to Spanish colonists and beginning of forced labor levies for the O'odham to work in the Spanish mines and haciendas. The Jesuits perceived Manje as a threat because of the many previous attempts by the Spanish to undermine Kino's work. 

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Chapter 13 - The Chapel of Saint Francis Xavier page
The last chapter in Steffan's book is about Kino's last trail ride to Magdalena to dedicate a chapel to his patron saint, Francis Xavier and his death. Also the death of O'odham leader Coro in Quiburi is told.

Kino's Beloved O'odham People
Daniel S. Matson & Bernard L. Fontana

When the Jesuit priest Eusebio Francisco Kino crossed over the imaginary line in northern Sonora poetically labeled the "rim of Christendom" (Bolton 1960b ), he became the first European known to establish a prolonged relationship with northern Piman Indians. The year was 1687, and the Indians consisted of diverse groups whose common bond was that of language. They all spoke mutually intelligible dialects of Piman, a language which belongs in the larger Uto-Aztecan stock, a group of related languages spoken all the way from southern Idaho to Nicaragua.

The Spaniards applied various names to these Pimans, calling some of them simply "Pimas," while others were variously "Papagos," "Sobas," "Sobaipuris," "Gileaños," "Imuris," and "Piatos." The ethnographic reality appears to have been that there were at least two or three dozen Piman groups in northern Sonora, each independent of the other and each with its own local dialect. Some of these people survived as hunting-gathering nomads in the deserts of what are today northwestern most Sonora and southwestern most Arizona. Others, those called "Papagos" during most of the eighteenth century, lived where Papagos continue to reside, in the vast riverless desert watered largely by summer monsoons that bring enough moisture to make agriculture possible. During the winter they lived in villages near permanent springs at the bases of mountain ranges. In the summer their villages were in the intermontane valleys in which they planted their fields of corn, tepary beans, and other native crops where rain-filled arroyos debouched onto the flats (Fontana 1974).

Piman life took its most luxuriant and anchored form in the riverine perimeters of the northern portion of the Sonoran Desert. The Gila, Santa Cruz, San Pedro, Magdalena, Concepción, Altar, and Sonoita rivers provided a year-round source of water, that most precious of all desert commodities - water that enabled the human species to live permanently in larger villages with fixed locations next to streams. Fields of crops could either be planted in the floodplain of rivers or they could be encouraged in their growth with the help of irrigation ditches.

It was here the Spaniards found the "Pimas," the "Sobaipuris,' and the "Gileños." It was here, among the larger villages, that the missions were founded, the churches constructed, and - as history would have it - the Spanish towns and later Mexican and Anglo-American cities grew. Tucson, the largest city in Arizona south of the Gila River, owes more than its name, "stuk-son," to the Pirnas. They were Indians who began the settlement in time immemorial, no doubt because they found the Santa Cruz River to their liking. And it was because of the Piman settlement that Spanish missionaries and soldiers were attracted to the place. The Spanish presidio became a ruined Mexican outpost; the Mexican town of mud­ brick houses became an Anglo-American desert metropolis. |23|

In pre-European times and, indeed, throughout the Spanish colonial period there was no such entity as a Piman "tribe," if by "tribe" one understands some kind of political linkage of units. What there were instead were "no-village" people in the west, perhaps two or three bands of extended family members; from nine to a dozen dialect groups of "two-village" people, each group comprised of a series of related settlements; and perhaps another six or eight dialect groups of "one­ village" people living in the river valleys.

The villages were laid out in similar fashion with widely scattered structures, both public arid private. The private structures were arranged in family compounds, and they consisted of brush houses and storage units, cooking enclosure, and a sunshade, or ramada. The public structure was a brush building in which the men held their nightly council meetings. It was usually near the compound of the headman of the local group because he was in charge of its upkeep. It also had to be located within shouting distance of all the other houses, because announcements were made from it in that manner (Bahr 1973: 4).

Local groups were encompassed by larger units called regional bands. The dialect spoken by members of a band was the same; village groups within the bands attended each other's ceremonies; and the villages within a band often recognized the "headship" status of an individual in what was regarded as a parent village (Bahr 1973: 21-22; Underhill 1939: 70-89). The headman held his office because of his personal abilities, not through inheritance. He could be a ritual orator ("wise speaker"), the organizer and principal speaker at council meetings ("fire maker" or "keeper of the smoke"), the person in charge of the group's sacred bundle ("keeper of the plaited basket"), and the person who had "great man" social status ("the one above") (Bahr 1973: 18-19). Government was by consensus of adult males and thereby strictly through consent of the governed. The headman could not be an autocrat.

The headman could have younger assistants to help him in his duties, assistants in roles such as "legs," "eyes," and "voice," and there were other men who led on specific occasions, as the war leader, hunt leader, game leader, and song leader (Bahr 1973: 19). This was about the extent of the political organization of Piman Indians during the eighteenth century.  

Piman economics was based on sharing and on devising means - whether through ceremonial exchanges, betting, or gifts - to spread wealth fairly evenly throughout the group and regional band (Bahr 1973: 24-37). Cooperation lay at the root of village subsistence, and the whole was cemented together by a world view spoken of as 'ó'odham himdag", the "Piman Way." The term " 'ó'odham " is used universally by Pimans in referring to themselves. It means "The People."

In its narrowest sense, we would translate  'ó'odham himdag as "Piman religion," but the concept of "way," meaning virtually a whole way of life, comes closer to expressing its genuine character. Pimans had no religion as something separate and apart from the rest of their lives. What they had was a way of life which saw the essence of religion in all things, all people, and all actions. Just as people had a "way," so did other living beings and some things that people did, such as ceremonies. |24| Just as people had rights and dignity and propriety, so did other living beings and ceremonies.

The Piman Way was reinforced among its followers by the threat of the diseases which could befall one who transgressed against it - the principal role of the shaman being to diagnose and direct the cures for such illnesses. It was further supported by a rich ceremonial life, with ceremonies involving growth of crops, hunting, warfare, community health, and, above all, the bringing down of life-sustaining rain (see Bahr and others 1974; Underhill n.d., 1946, 1968).

The language the Pimans spoke was as complex as any in the world. It was and continues to be capable of expressing ideas as intricate and as abstract as any concepts peculiar to Indo-European cultural traditions, whether Spanish, Latin or English. The vocabulary is enormous - running into many thousands of words (Mathiot 1973) - and is capable of expressing whatever it is Pimans might have occasion to say within the context of their real universe.

In short, the Piman Indians whom the missionaries encountered in the late seventeenth century in northern Sonora had political organizations, social organizations, economic organizations, a complex language, and a religion which was the embodiment of their various ways of life. They had developed a technology admirably adapted to desert subsistence, one which appears to have been well suited to extracting a maximal living from the natural surroundings while imposing the least amount of long-range environmental damage.

Even so, existence must have been harsh. Life expectancy was very short. In dry years there were probably starvations; in good years people weren't likely to get fat. The only major sources of meat were game animals like antelope, deer, and mountain sheep, all hard to kill with the bow-and-arrow and an uncertain source of food at best. Spanish cattle, sheep, and horses - to say nothing of new crops such as wheat - must have looked very good to the Pimans. It is small wonder that Piman villages sometimes sent out emissaries to urge a visit by the missionary. It was he who distributed the largesse of European foodstuffs.

The Pimans of northern Sonora were not a cultural island. There were other Pimans to the south, even as there were Opatas and Seris. There were Yuman­speaking Indians on the west and northwest; there were Apaches to the north, northeast, and east (see Spicer 1962). But on the overland route to California from Mexico, the Pimería Alta was an essential steppingstone. Its natives had to be "brought to vassalage" if Spain's manifest destiny were to be fulfilled.

Daniel S. Matson
Bernard L. Fontana
Editors
Indian Culture in the Pimería Alta: A Model of Adaptation
Friar Bringas Reports to the King: Methods of Indoctrination on the Frontier of New Spain, 1796–97

The Industrious and Desert Sharing People
Ruth Underhill

Poor as the Papago country was its economics were those of abundance. Papagos did not hoard property; ... they were constantly giving, as though from an inexhaustible supply. The answer is that the supply, meagre though it was from the modem point of view, was sufficient, for their simple needs and more. ....

Food was the principal gift and food will not keep in that hot country except in dehydrated form. Because of the migratory life, it must be left unguarded in storehouses and caches, subject to attack by animals or enemies. Better to dispose of any surplus while it was available and palatable and thus invest in good will! And anything but starvation rations was considered a surplus. The standard meal was corn meal gruel: luxuries much beyond that were donated with lavish hand and never missed.

Giving became the regular Papago investment .... One who gained the reputation for stinginess had damned his prospects in village and family life while the lavish giver not only achieved honor but had a continual income pouring in. For all gifts were returned, in equal quantity and more. The constant exchange of goods in the form of gifts was the Papago equivalent for trade .... Papago economics involves principally the study of groups which had' gift relations.

The center of the system was the patriarchal family which, rather than the individual, must be taken as the unit both of property holding and of gift exchange. The family was a business concern, producing and disposing of goods under the direction of its male and female heads, and such production meant a full time occupation. This was not the sort of society where the men, when not hunting or fighting, had the privilege of leisure: the men were day laborers like the women. All rose with the morning star, rested in the heat of noon and did not stop work until dark. It was slow motion labor, for the heat forbids haste. But is was unremitting. Industry was the prime virtue ....

Ruth Underhill
The Papago and Pima Indians of Arizona

Today's O'odham People

For information about the today's O'odham People, click
The O'odham People page

O'odham and Spanish Encounters
Cynthia Radding

This brief overview of work, labour and market relations of production in north-west Mexico illustrates the ambiguity of the freedom in a colonial periphery. Indian-Spanish relations in this region [north-west Mexico] evolved not through chattel slavery, nor within the institutional constraints of the "encomienda" or repartimiento" but through multiple layers of coercion and negotiation. "Sonorans" retained a significant degree of mobility ....

Cynthia Radding
Work, Labor and the Market:
The Response of Farmers and Semi-Nomadic People To Colonization in North-west Mexico
in Unfree Labor in the Development of the Atlantic World
Paul E. Lovejoy and Nicholas Rogers, Editors, 1994

Spanish Settlers and Economy of Sonora 
Peter Stern and Robert Jackson

Frontiers are, by definition, unsettled and wild places; populations are shifting and mobile, social conditions are in state of constant flux, and governmental authority is generally weak. Frontier populations tend to be resentful of any type of control, and are often engaged in entrepreneurial activities whose degree of legality varies widely. In frontier conditions, people the state defines as vagabonds and marginal tend to flourish. Their tenure as frontiersmen is usually brief, for they depend on the very conditions of instability which exist in areas with underdeveloped economies, weak authority, and sparse and spatially dispersed populations. Nevertheless, they can have an effect out of proportion to their numbers in a frontier society.

Northern Sonora during the colonial period was just such a frontier society. Its non-Indian population was small, its economy, apart from mining, underdeveloped, and its European population divided over questions of land and labor. Effective government control was weak. In these conditions those defined in Spanish society as vagabundos ran unhindered throughout the countryside, much to the exasperation of colonial officials and missionaries alike. The combination of a mobile mining population, and a shifting population of mestizos and mulattoes naturally resentful of any authority, gave Sonoran society an instability which hindered economic growth, effective acculturation and conversion, and the development of what the Spaniards would regard as civilized polity. ....

In 1723, when the non-Indian population of Sonora was not more than a few thousand people, Jesuit missionary Daniel Januske wrote that the settlers could be reduced to four classes: captains of presidios, alcaldes mayores, and justicias; miners and merchants, Spanish settlers and other poor people who searched for ore and earned their living through other activities; and coyotes, mulatos, and other "filth of the earth" (hezes de la tierra) who wander like vagabonds in the province without any other occupation than stealing, gambling, seducing women, sowing discord and producing other evils." Januske declared that the fourth class made up the largest part of the Sonoran population. He bitterly condemned the justicias who did little or nothing to prevent people from wandering the countryside, allegedly in search of precious metals. He complained that there were numerous parties, miners in name only, who had neither mines nor any means to sustain themselves. He recommended that the civil authorities take strong measures to restore good government, and separate the Indians from the "gente mala." He demanded that the coyotes, mulatos, and other vagabonds be compelled to discharge their servants, and be forced to work for a vecino. This, he wrote, would contribute a great deal to the peace of the province, the growth of mining, the increase of royal revenues, and the relief and quiet of towns "disquieted by that class of men". ....

One of the earliest and most important economic activities in Sonora in the seventeenth century was mining, and the discovery of workable veins followed closely on the establishment of the missions. Miners made the first strikes in Central Sonora at Tuape in 1649 and San Juan Bautista in 1657, and in subsequent years at San Ildefonso de Ostimuri (1673) and Alamos (c. 1680). Smaller mining camps sprang up at Nacozari about 1660, and in the Tepache Valley in the 1670s. The establishment of mines also stimulated other economic activities. Ranches, farms and haciendas developed to provide leather goods for the miners, and mission Indians found a ready market for agricultural surpluses. Indeed, these economic activities assumed significant proportions in certain sections of Sonora.

In the region south of Arizpe on the Rio Sonora in the 1720s, for example, there existed four Indian villages, fourteen ranches, eleven farms (labores), two mining camps, one of which was the Real de San Antonio de Motepori, and eight silver refining operations (haciendas de sacar plata), all in a distance of sixteen leagues. In the 1680s the Jesuits expanded their activities to the Pimeria Alta region of northern Sonora, and the mining frontier followed. A number of mining camps, such as Saracachi and Bacanuchi, already existed on the southern fringes of the Pimeria. ...

Development of mining in Sonora led to a conflict between the missionaries and settlers which, in some ways, affected the way in which missionary writers wrote about the settlers. A system of repartimiento de sello developed in Sonora to provide cheap Indian labor from the missions for the mines. Local civil officials required Indian governors to provide a stipulated number of workers known as cuasinques or tapisques on demand. Under the repartimiento the alcalde mayor or his lieutenant requested laborers from the governors.

Peter Stern and Robert Jackson
Vagabundaje and Settlement Patterns in Colonial Northern Sonora
The Americas Vol. 44, No. 4 (Apr., 1988), pp. 461-481

O'odham Church Building Tradition Beginning With Kino

Editor Note: The O'odham People were attracted to the charismatic Kino and would travel year round to Kino's Mission Dolores headquarters to help him plant and harvest crops, herd sheep and roundup cattle and receive in return food and clothing in payment and as gifts.

However very few Spanish colonial historians acknowledge how the O'odham people throughout all of the Pimeria Alta would travel from their homes to help Kino build his churches at Dolores and the two great churches that were completed in late 1703 after one year of construction. Herbert Bolton uses excerpts from Kino's "Favores Celestiales" to give an account about the workers and their families.

O'odham Church Builders
Herbert E. Bolton

After Kino returned from his journey to the Colorado in 1702 he hoped to follow up the triumph by another expedition, one which would take him clear around the head of the Gulf and down the California coast to Loreto. In imagination he saw himself embracing Salvatierra, Picolo, and Ugarte there and telling of his adventure. At the same time, his visits to the industrious Yumas and Quiquimas inspired him with the idea of going to Mexico to appeal for more missionaries, as he had done after the martyrdom of Saeta. The plan to go to the capital seemed timely just now. ...

Now, at the end of 1702, his projected journeys to the Colorado and to Mexico having been prevented, Kino turned as a major interest to the completion of the churches at Remedios and Cocóspera. In a little more than a year they were finished .....

"Because my going to Mexico, as well as to California, had been prevented, I applied myself to building with all possible vigor and speed, so as to have this work more advanced ... I have tried to have in the three pueblos of my administration [Dolores, Cocóspera and Remedios] ... sufficient supplies of maize, wheat, cattle, and clothing, or merchandise, such as cloth, sayal, blankets, and other fabrics, which are the currency [form of economic exchange] that best serves in these new lands for the laborers, master carpenters ....."

The neophytes were willing workers, and distant chiefs vied with each other in the number of grandules they could contribute to the enterprise. Sometimes they came with their entire families, and then Cocóspera looked like an Indian camp. .....

To assemble workers, messages were sent far and wide. Bac [Wa:k] especially responded. "I invited some men from the frontier for the work on these buildings, and they came far and away more than I had asked for; and very especially, for the entire months, the many inhabitants of the great new pueblo of San Francisco Xavier del Bac, which is sixty leagues distant to the north, worked and built on the three pueblos of this place and of my administration."

Captain Coro came with his men. Other chiefs and their subject rallied "from the west, the southwest and the north. with their whole families." Thousands of adobes were made ....

All this work Kino personally superintended, continually riding back and forth from one mission to another. He tells us, "I managed almost all the year to go nearly every week through the three pueblos, looking after both spiritual and temporal things, and the rebuilding of the two above-mentioned new churches." The round trip was nearly a hundred miles ....

Remedios and Cocóspera ... "would have cost ten thousand pesos were it not for the fact that, thank the Lord and His celestial favors, through the fertility of the land of these new conversions, .... the expenditures were reduced to five hundred beeves for consumption during the construction of these two buildings, five hundred fanegas of maize, and about three thousand pesos in clothing, which is the money [paid to and] used and current among the native of these new conversions."

At last the two beautiful churches were finished. The dedication was a great event for all the Pimería. .... Indian friends responded from far and wide. "Many natives from the interior, from the north, west, and especially the northwest, attended the two dedications, greatly to our pleasure. Many of them came more than one hundred leagues, as did the captain of the Yumas, with many of his people." They had trudged three hundred and fifty miles .....

Now, in the dedications, Kino found encouragement for his California dream. The Indians from the Colorado did not come empty-handed, but brought what they knew Father Eusebio most prized. They came with "gifts of shells from the head of the Sea of California, and with very good messages from the ... Quiquimas, Cutganes, Coanopas, etc., nations on the land route to California."

Herbert E. Bolton
"Rim of Christendom"

For more about Kino's Mission Churches, click
Architect Builder page

Tohono O'odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris, Jr.

Tohono O'odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris, Jr. on Padre Kino
Being Named Venerable By The Vatican

Tohono O'odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris, Jr. in a television interview about Padre Kino being named Venerable by the Vatican said "There's probably some mixed feelings among the O'odham... For me, it was a blessing to be able to see that that has happened." "It's going to be an even bigger blessing" [when Kino is named a saint.]  

Also interviewed is Kino sainthood promoter Fr. Vincente Lopez. The reporter is Paul Cicala for News 4 Tucson, KVOA TV.

The interview on August 11, 2020, took place at Mission San Xavier del Bac founded by Kino in 1692 and located in the O'odham community of Wa:c.

For 3 minute interview video with a transcript, click →
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5wc3QrVYFQ

For KVOA TV news story, click →
https://www.kvoa.com/news/local/pope-could-visit-tucson-as-father-kino-approaches-sainthood/article_60a9ed26-4a80-5ae2-b620-c76ec97d4aa6.html