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Published: January 2nd 2013
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THE LAST FIGHT
Go west from I-19 on Ruby Road toward Pena Blanca Lake. Take Forest Road 39 west from Pena Blanca towards Arivaca. Bear Valley Rd is located about five miles out just past the Atascosa Trailhead. Turn south about half a mile and decide for yourself where the last fight began. THE LAST FIGHT
On January 9, 1918 a detachment of Buffalo Soldiers from the Tenth Cavalry intercepted a group of Yaquis smuggling guns into Mexico through Bear Valley a few miles west of Nogales, AZ on the north side of the border. A brief engagement ensued in which the Yaqui leader was killed and ten of his rear guard was captured; the rest having safely escaped back home with their guns. It was the final armed conflict between American soldiers and Indians on our soil and it is not much of a surprise that it involved Yaquis. Those smugglers were returning to Mexico to resist usurpation of their land by General Alvaro Obregon. Yaquis had been fighting tyrannical rule by Mexico for 500 years. It began in 1533 when a Spanish ship arrived at the mouth of the Rio Yaqui in the Gulf of California and began plundering Yaqui farms. The hungry sailors were driven off but the location of those farms was duly noted and other hungry sailors turned up from time to time looking for more trouble. In 1684 Spanish colonists discovered silver in the Rio Yaqui Valley. By 1740 the incursion of New Spain into Yaqui lands had become intolerable and a Yaqui uprising resulted in which the colonists were pushed out. The Yaquis did not participate in the Mexican Revolution against Spain that ended Spanish rule in 1821, but the Occidente Government tried to impose taxation on the Yaquis in 1825. They didn’t like taxes any more than the American Yankee did, and like us they went to war over it. The tax revolt was led by Juan Banderas and included allies from the Mayo, Opata, and Pima. They were outgunned in a battle near Hermosillo in 1827 and Banderas had to negotiate a peace. Occidente imposed taxes again in 1828 and included a plan for allotment of the tribal lands. War broke out again in 1832 but the Yaqui and Opata were defeated again near Buenavista and this time Banderas, and the Opata chief, Dolores Gutierrez, were executed. Resistance continued under other leaders but the unity against Mexico had broken. In 1834 the Yaqui tried to drive out Mexican settlement at Torim, but were opposed by a pro-Mexican faction of Yaquis under Juan Ignacio Juscamea, who continued to cooperate with the Mexicans until he was killed in 1840 by anti-Mexican Yaquis at Horcasitas. For the next few years the Yaqui fought on the side of Manuel Gandara in opposition to Jose de Urrea for the Governorship of Sonora. Government officials were not selected in a peaceful electoral process. Bad leaders had to be overthrown in bloody insurrection. In 1857 Gandara was overthrown as Governor of Sonora by Ignacio Pesquiera. Yaqui opposition to Pesquiera lasted until they were defeated by him in 1862 with the result that their lands were subject to military occupation. The French attempted to depose Pesquiera in 1865 and defeated him at Guaymas, at which point anti-Mexican Yaqui and Opata joined the conflict. They drove Pesquiera out of his base at Ures, but in 1868 the French withdrew and left their native allies at the mercy of Pesquiera. His forces captured 600 peaceful Yaquis at Cocorit and locked them inside a church and then shelled the church with artillery. In 1874 Pesquiera attempted to appoint his brutal son as successor to the Governorship of Sonora. It caused more violence and lead to another large scale massacre. This time the slaughter was directed against the pro-Mexican faction. Pesquiera appointed Cajame as alcade-general of all Yaqui and Mayo communities, and by 1876 he had formed an independent Yaqui Republic. They built a fortified town called El Anil and attempted to live in peace, but there were only 4000 undefeated Yaquis left. Carlos Ortiz ousted Pesquiera in 1882 but he could not abide the existence of the Yaqui Republic in Sonora. Ortiz sent his brother, Augustin, to defeat El Anil, but Augustin was routed. Fighting continued until 1884 when the Yaquis finally recognized Mexican authority, except Cajame still insisted on independence with a few hardcore followers. He was finally killed in 1886 and the Yaqui Republic came to an end. Most of the remaining Yaquis scattered to other Mexican states, but they weren’t quite done yet. In 1896 the revolutionary, Lauro Aguirre, decided to overthrow the government of Porfirio Diaz with fewer than 70 disgruntled Yaquis and Pimas. They attacked the customs house at Naco but were driven off. A peace accord was found in 1897 that stipulated that all Yaqui become individual land owners. The problem was that none of those impoverished people could afford to acquire their own land. They resisted that authority and lead to the Massacre at Mazocoba on January 18, 1900 in which a thousand Yaqui were slaughtered. Many of the survivors fled into Arizona or Texas. President Diaz began a pacification program in 1903 in which a manhunt was launched in Sonora and all peaceful and rebellious Yaquis were supposed to be rounded up and deported to Yucatan and Oaxaca. They were rounded up alright, but taken into slavery. When the full scale Mexican Revolution broke out in 1910 all of the Yaquis that could do so joined every rebel army. Francisco Madero, the President of Mexico, offered the Yaquis compensation but those promises were forgotten by 1920. The last major conflict in the Yaqui Wars came in 1927 at the Battle of Cerro Gordo. Minor engagements followed until 1929 when final resistance was broken by aerial bombardment. The photo shows the area in Bear Valley where the Buffalo Soldiers engaged the Yaqui smugglers. It is perfect terrain for a successful rear guard action.
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