THE ABORIGINAL peoples of the Mexican
state of Sonora, of which there were seven major
groups when the Spaniards arrived in the mid-
sixteenth century, have to a large extent been lost
sight of. These seven groups were the Yaquis,
Mayos, Pimas, Papagos, Opatas, Jovas, and Seris.
Acculturation has proceeded in such a fashion
that, with the possible exception of the Seris,
there is no group which can be said to observe
aboriginal patterns to any great degree. None of
the major tribes of Sonora, however, has disap-
peared completely. The descendants of these
Indians, who can be found in most areas of the
state, manifest, group by group, differing stages
of physical and cultural absorption into surround-
ing Mexican populations.

The tribes of Sonora, in fact, present a rough
continuum of varying responses to contact
ranging from the least Mexicanized Seris, on the
one hand, through the more Hispanicized Sonora
Papagos, Lower Pimas, Yaquis, and Mayos, and
terminating in the almost absorbed Jovas and
Opatas ( Spicer 1954: 663-678). Two other
groups, the Cocopas and the Varohios, with
extensions into Sonora are not included. Among
these peoples the processes of acculturation must
be examined in terms of two major periods of
change. The first of these is the colonial period
at which time the natives were brought under
mission influence and the cultures of all under-
went extensive alteration. Again excepting the
Seris, who will no longer be included in this
paper, the result was a mixed Spanish colonial-
native Indian type culture which in many ways
parallels that outlined by La Farge for Middle
America ( La Farge 1940: 281-291). Today one
of the major points of difference between mem-
bers of these groups and their non-Indian neigh-
bors is the greater retention of Spanish colonial
forms introduced by the early missionaries. These
traits, particularly religious practices, have come,
through long association, to be regarded locally
as characterizing the Sonoran Indian.

The second period of change is seen in the
gradual merging of Spanish-Indian colonial cul-
ture with that of modern non-Indian Sonora. For
most of these groups, then, the contemporary
situation can be described most accurately as that
of participants, in varying degrees, in the peasant-
like subculture of rural Sonora rather than that of
tribal Indians (peasant subculture as defined by
Wagley and Harris 1955: 431-433).

This paper is concerned with the three most
assimilated indigenous groups in present day So-
nora; namely, the Lower Pimas, the Jovas, and
the Opatas. These are Indian groups among which
there has been little ethnological work and which
have been considered by most writers to be extinct
or nearly so. The Upper Pimas are omitted be-
cause of their uncertain contemporary position.
Although apparently extinct over their old terri-
tory in Sonora, the possibility remains that certain
segments of this former Sonoran group may still
exist, having been incorporated into the modern
Papago of Arizona.

A second purpose of the paper is to delimit
and locate the native Indians still existing in con-
temporary eastern Sonora and briefly to define
the varying degrees of survival as ethnic entities
which these people display, group by group and
area by area. By this examination it is hoped
that the place of these people in relation to the
larger Sonoran society and their present orienta-
tion can be better understood.

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