The Paradox of Friendship: Loyalty and Betrayal on the Sonoran Frontier

On November 20, 1751, an unexpected revolt stunned the Spanish residents of the Pimería Alta. That morning Luis Oacpicagigua, governor of Sáric and capitán general of the Pimas Altos, gathered his kinsmen along the outskirts of his pueblo in order to proclaim a general uprising (Ewing 1938:337). Their purpose was straightforward: to drive all missionaries, Spaniards, and non-Pima Indians from Pima territory (Fontana 1996:x). As the revolt spread, however, it became evident that the Pimas maintained divided loyalties. Although many joined the rebellion, hoping to redefine their subordinate social standing vis-à-vis Spaniards, others, loyal to the Spanish Crown, promptly informed the gente de razón¹ and the Jesuit missionaries of the impending danger (Utrera 1754a). Their warnings arrived too late.

The rebellion spread rapidly, engulfing much of the Pimería Alta within hours. On the first night, an estimated twenty-five vecinos (Spanish settlers) lost their lives at Sáric, including the wife and children of the mayordomo (overseer), Laureano (Ewing 1938:340, n.17).² Three Spanish families encountered a similar fate at Arivaca. At Caborca, capitán de guerra Luis Batiutuc led his own Pima cohorts in a general sweep against Spaniards, killing the resident priest, Thomás Tello, and eleven gente de razón. The next day Batiutuc and his men proceeded to the real (mining community) of Oquitoa where, absent a resident priest, they killed twenty more Spaniards (mostly miners), taking their property and leaving the town in flames. At Tubutama, 125 Pima rebels under the leadership of Sebastián lit the mission church ablaze; Fathers Jacobo Sedelmayr and Juan Nentvig barely escaped with their lives. Pimas ransacked the church in Guevavi, making quick work of the church’s furnishings—“mangling the santos and smashing the tabernacle”—while still taking time to kill all of Father Joseph Garrucho’s chickens and pigeons (Kessell 1970:108). The violence spilled over to San Marcelo de Sonoyta, where Pima insurgents clubbed Father Enrique Ruhen and his two Indian assistants to death, taking care to strip the church of its sacred ornaments before unceremoniously setting it to the torch. Two days later, Father Ignacio Keller, missionary of Soamca, fearing the rebels might attack his mission next, pleaded with the lieutenant from the presidio of Terrenate, Isidoro Sánchez, for military aid; he was sent only five men (Ewing 1938:346).³ It fell to Diego Ortiz Parrilla, governor of the province of Sinaloa y Sonora, to put an end to the violence and punish the perpetrators.⁴ To the consternation of the affected missionaries and Spanish residents, however, Ortiz Parrilla chose diplomacy and appeasement over retribution, offering Oacpicagigua generous terms of surrender. This remarkable decision, seen by many as “a strikingly un-Spanish campaign against the rebels” (Kessell 1970:109), became a source of intense controversy in the ensuing months and years, for it was evident that the governor’s judgment had been prejudiced by his personal bond of friendship with the Pima leader.

The rebellion signaled a transitory shift in the hierarchical template of the Pimería Alta, partially redefining conventional relationships of power between both ethnic groups. Sensing this delicate swing in social influence, the Pima insurgents struck with a sense of immediacy, carrying out most of their attacks within one week of its origin. Small skirmishes and hostilities followed intermittently for over a year but were of little significance since the bulk of the damage had already been done. The exact reason why the revolt began at this particular time, however, remains unclear; there is no undisputed smoking gun (Salmón 1988:70). Brute physical abuse on the part of soldiers, years of land theft by Spanish settlers and missionaries, and, perhaps most damaging, decades of psychological and physical exploitation at the hands of a few missionaries and their mayordomos all seem to have played a significant role.

The following article, drawing from the numerous testimonies that followed the 1751 Pima Revolt, takes a different, less-transited route toward examining its dynamics. Instead of focusing on the generalized acrimony inherent among...