Colonial Tensions in the Governance of Indigenous Authorities and the Pima Uprising of 1751

Rivalry between Jesuit missionaries and Spanish authorities over control of Native populations constituted a common source of political friction in the province of Sonora. Although this antagonism has been recognized for various periods by scholars of the region (Donohue 1969; Spicer 1980), its effects on Pima Alto communities have been, for the most part, only tangentially addressed (see Garate 1999, for an exception). In this article, I examine the structural tensions present in governance of the Pimería Alta during the mid-eighteenth century, paying particular attention to the political mechanisms underlying the bestowal of indigenous authority. In doing so, I highlight the crucial testimonies given by the leaders of the 1751 Pima Revolt, which can be directly attributed to such tensions.

The Tensions of Governance

In the early years of missionization among the Pimas, indigenous leaders were formally named by military authorities in concert with the missionaries, creating a system of governance the Jesuits largely controlled by virtue of the fact that there was little direct contact between most Pimas and non-Jesuits. As Father Juan Nentvig (1980:165) described in his “Rudo Ensayo,” under the Spanish implementation of government in the Americas each pueblo had a cabildo, a governing body of Native town officials that included a governor; an alcalde, who served as local magistrate; an alguacil, the community law enforcement officer; and a topil, who served as jailer and administered punishments. Elected by the indigenous population annually, these officials were in charge of the political governance of the community, which involved the maintenance of the mission, the administration of justice, and, more importantly, the organization of indigenous labor. In practical terms the Jesuit missionaries had, to varying degrees, discretionary power over the functions of the cabildo, for all intents and purposes controlling the production and distribution of resources in the entire Pimería.

This power structure began to change as Spanish settlement moved into the Pimería Alta, leading to increased contact between Pimas and the broader Spanish population and creating a new set of political tensions. During the early decades of the eighteenth century, the Spanish military relied greatly on Pima auxiliaries to protect the Sonoran frontier from Apache and Seri raiding. Ironically, the protection the Pimas provided effectively opened their territory to the encroachment of Spanish vecinos,¹ who soon came to covet indigenous land and labor still under the control of missionaries. As vecinos established relationships of trade and compadrazgo² directly with their Pima neighbors, they challenged the Jesuit monopoly on the management of indigenous resources. At the same time, this new set of relations led to the rise of new indigenous political figures at the intersection of power as bestowed by the missionaries on the one hand, and by secular society (represented by the governor of the province) on the other. Pima leaders emerging as figures of power—which derived from their trading and/or military prowess—were increasingly relied upon by both missionaries and military authorities to control the broader Pima population.

As missionaries struggled not only to maintain their control of Pima labor, but also to protect their communities from the negative influences of secular populations, tensions grew between the fathers and Spanish authorities, with Pima populations often bearing the brunt of the friction. During the second and third decades of the eighteenth century, tensions escalated to the point where a number of Sonora’s vecinos with considerable wealth and political influence, desiring control over the land and labor protected by the mission system, made a strong push for secularizing the missions (Donohue 1969:19–31). Their effort proved unsuccessful, but set the political tone for several decades. In the meantime, the need for protecting the Pimería from Apaches and Seris increased, granting Pima auxiliaries a prominent role in the defense of the region.

A breaking point in the internal tensions of the governance system was reached in late November 1751, when a large force of Pimas Altos rose up in rebellion and took the lives of more than one...