The Yaqui Today - A People in Transition

A figure stands alone supported by a forked stick spine. He stares out of his oversize head - painted face, long ears, horns, and long painted nose. This is his moment of peace and triumph. He has been paraded around and around throughout a crowd of people on the outskirts of a dusty compound and finally attached to his station. He has been elaborately prepared with both fear and loving care, painted and decorated with symbolic objects. He wears a scarf and necklace. He carries a wooden sword in his belt. One of the fetishes attached to him may be a negligent child's teddy bear. He is the symbol of evil, created by man “devils” in their own image and carried by them in triumphal procession around the Yaqui Pascua village in Tucson. He is enthroned at the opposite end of the compound from the church and faces it. Directly to his left and just a few feet away is a white cross shadowing him with his imminent fate. All of his followers who have venerated him will turn against him, throw his symbols with frenzied violence at his feet, and burn him at the stake. (Yaqui Easter Ceremonial by Phyliss Bolastrero, Arizona Highways, March, 1971.) The modern Yaqui Easter Ceremonial, of which the above is but a small part, actually had its beginnings around 1617, when Jesuit missionaries pushed into the Yaqui country of northern Mexico. That was 360 years ago.

Today, the Yaqui are evaluating this and many other Yaqui traditions in a cold, new political light. And it's creating a cultural crisis.

Anselmo Valencia, Chairman of the Pasqua Yaqui Association and acknowledged cultural leader of the tribe, predicted several years ago that Yaqui traditions would, by this time, be forgotten. Surprisingly, though, many of the young people of the tribe take seriously the responsibility of continuing the traditions.

It is not as though the tide has turned. Each year some Yaquis still say it will be the last of the ceremonies, while others insist that the customs of the tribe will indeed be maintained.

The emphasis has shifted, however, from the Church and the plaza to the community center, where the tribal administration has its offices, where food stamps are doled out, where jobs in Arizona are listed on microfilm, where there are family counselors.

Young people here are aware of changes coming about and of differences of opinion concerning what is more important cultural integrity or economic pride. They have seen the formation of the Yaqui Construction Company on which are pinned the hopes of the community for both.

It would be difficult to exaggerate the depth of meaning the fiestas and rituals have to the Yaqui people, or the total dedication men, women and children have to their particular ceremonial roles. The survival of their cultural integrity depends upon their being a tightly-knit group. In a world made increasingly homogeneous - by ecumenism, by mass communication, by mobility this is a challenge.

Old Pascua, earliest village of the Yaqui near Tucson, for example, once out from the city, is now up against an industrial park on one side, a strip of motels on another, and it shares the Diminishing natural landscape with several encampments of mobile homes.

In the early 1960s, some of the people who had become dissatisfied with the deteriorating condition of Old Pascua sought new land upon which to reestablish the community. The site they chose was federal property, and they approached Arizona Congressman Morris K. Udall for his advice and assistance. Mr. Udall introduced a bill in Congress to provide for the transfer of the land to the Pascua Yaquis. The Indians formed the Pascua Yaqui Association, Inc., to receive the deed.

The tract obtained in August, 1974, is flat desert, located between the south end of the Tucson Mountain range and Black Mountain, about a mile south of Valencia Road. The plan submitted to the Pima County Planning and Zoning Commission included a church building and central plaza, large spaces set aside for recreation, and plots for 200 homes.

There are more than ninety homes there now; there is a Community Center with a large, modern kitchen; there are baseball diamonds to accommodate five teams. And, most important to many of the people, there is at last a comfortable church, with a floor that can be removed for ceremonial dancing, and a wide door that rolls up, leaving a side of the structure open to the plaza.

On the day of the church dedication, urgent political business was being conducted next door in the Community Center, which put New Pascua's future right on the line.

A Task Force from the House of Representatives' Interior and Insular Committee was holding a hearing relative to the tribe's eligibility for federal aid. In a precarious move to keep their heads above troubled financial waters, the members of the Association, in an open vote, had decided to again approach Congressman Udall, this time to ask for his help in gaining recognition as an American Indian tribe.

The Easter Ceremonial, one of the old traditions being re-evaluated today by the Yaqui, takes place at Pascua near Tucson, during the three holy days preceding Easter Sunday. A unique reenactment of the passion of Christ, the solemn and impressive ceremony depicts the events leading up to the crucifixion and the resurrection. But while the Yaqui are Catholic, their passion play is based on their own interpretation of the Easter Story. What has developed is a rich combination of Catholic ritual and tribal tradition: an age-old story played against a backdrop of the battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil.

(Right) On Easter Sunday, a procession of members of the Church Society, flag bearers and acolytes bring Christ into the church. It is a symbolic event in which the resurrection as well as the victory of good over evil is represented.

(Below) The zoom lens captures the vigorous spirit of the Deer Dancer, one of the oldest dances in the Yaqui tradition. In a matchless blend of dance and costume, the Deer Dancer honors the spirits of all animals, birds, fish and insects.

The Cultural, geographic, and political boundaries do not always coincide. They are further confused in a territory that has belonged, in turns, to the United States, Spain and Mexico. The Yaquis who live here feel “American.” Their willingness to be proper citizens was shown as early as 1924 when they sent a letter of appreciation to the Tucson newspaper: This is our flag. it is Red, White and Blue. The Blue contains the Military of the poor soldors. and the White contains the peace of the peopol. and the Red contains the fiesta of the eight little cities of the tribe. and in our country the flag has no stars. But if the law of the U.S.A. want to put some stars on our flag they can put it on our flag. Because we are in the state of America. So we want the stars of haven. So we sign our names.

During World War II the Yaquis assisted in scrap metal collection and enlisted in the armed services, something they were not allowed to do during World War I, when they were refugees from Mexico.

Oh, Creator Sun

To serve our people, To grasp the universe Of all walks of life.

At birth I tasted the Earth with my mouth.

To respect this ground so dear. Hold her so close. And not dare let her go.

Swords of the Chapayekas await the next dance of the Easter pageant. Each member of the society makes his own sword.

A fire burns within me. Of Old Yaqui life.

I am here for many reasons.

So let me free myself to the eyes of all and be proud to stand in the world Old and New for Yaqui will not die.

- Yolanda Schutz Native American status gains Indians prestige but not much backing. For example, a grant from the Office of Economic Opportunity in 1966 provided $99,000 to the Association for on-thejob training of Yaqui men while they built the first New Pascua homes, but money for the materials had to be raised by donations. Today, the village Elaborately prepared with fear and loving care, Judas is paraded around the dusty compound before being enthroned as the king or god of the evil forces.

(Below) Dancing to the last songs of The Gloria.

Urgently needs a new sewer system, but the Association has not been able to qualify for a standard government loan. Many agencies of the government are sympathetic, but the current status of the Yaqui tribe is so ambiguous that the government cannot decide whether they should be classified "urban" or "rural."

As American Indians, another type of Indian designation, on the other hand, their recently acquired land would become a reservation held in trust, and they would be eligible for the services and assistance provided other American Indians by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, and the Indian Health Service, Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

Not all the Yaquis are happy about the pending permanent relationship with the federal government - independence has always been a strong characteristic of their tribe. The eleven-member tribal board, however, representing all of the Arizona Yaqui settlements, feels that it is their only chance of halting disintegration of community. Others believe they are entitled to recognition, but fear it may be a compromise, that their comCommunity will be changed. Another major concern is the lack of support from some of the established American Indians.

Many Yaquis also are troubled by the fact that to become an American Indian necessarily cuts the tie to Mexican relatives, at a time when support and unity are most needed. It seems to them a denial of their uniqueness and of the past.

One of the dramatic needs of the people at New Pascua is transportation. Yet mobility also is a threat to solidarity, in the sense that it offers so many opportunities for social and cultural life away from home. Even the ride to and from work takes many hours a week previously devoted to the community.

Another unanticipated influence that has already taken its toll is the increasing number of women who are working to help with family finances.

Hope Estrella, wife of Tribal Council member Justo Estrella, is one who still manages to spend an enormous amount of time and energy on ceremonial cooking, even though she is employed at a school cafeteria full-time.

Her children are almost grown, and she laments the fact that they are not as interested in traditional activities as she and her husband think they should be. She notes also it is becoming increasingly difficult to get women of the village to volunteer their efforts toward the many tortilla-making sessions, or to the all-night vigils they must keep during ceremonies, in order to feed the men who are fulfilling their societal obligations.

Mrs. Estrella's dedication goes beyond a sense of duty, for she admits to getting a deep personal satisfaction in return for her many long hours in the communal kitchen. Yet it must be noted that such nurturing of one's friends and neighbors is a large part of true Yaqui life.

The ritual kinship system is as strong as it ever was, and it seems to be at least as successful, and exceedingly more personal, a way to cope with today's pressures as those institutions and agencies that have been devised a-culturally to serve society at large. Compadres attend to one another's Not all the Yaquis are happy about the pending permanent relationship with the federal government - independence has always been a strong characteristic of their tribe.

needs from birth to death. They are concerned with all personal crises. Every family knows there are others who will bring them food. When there is suffering, as in death, it is shared.

There is an atmosphere of common good in the community, too. It shows on the faces of the children as they roam freely during fiestas, in the safety of neighbors they know. It shows in the relaxed looks of the parents, comfortable about bringing their children into the familiar ceremonial fold.

There also is an attitude of benevolence one toward the other in the village. A gentleman offers to explain the Easter story to a stranger. His wife is singing with the cantoras. He says: "She is an angel to me." A tiny girl wearing an aqua dress with a bright white pinafore steps carefully over the dusty ground toward a group of young men engaged in earnest conversation. She hands one of them her father a can of cold soda, and all the talking stops as he takes time to reach out with his free hand and gently smooth the braid on top of her head. A young married couple who live and work in town come back to New Pascua almost every evening to help their mothers with their younger brothers and sisters.

Yaqui ways are not always clear to the bystander. The Association has hardly had time to launch a public relations campaign. Misunderstandings occur, such as that which arose when well-meaning members of a marching band, guests at the church dedication, trooped onto the far end of the Plaza during a matachini dance. They were asked to leave the ceremonial arena. Most of them went home, and not without some grumbling.

Director of the Pascua Yaqui Association, Raymond Ybarra, was seated at a distance, aware of the festivities, but resting in the background after a grueling question and answer session with the Washington Task Force that began early in the day. The meeting had been open to the public, but in most cases it was Ybarra who had been called upon to respond.

Ybarra wiped his forehead as the sun beat down on the Plaza and the dust was kicked up by the marchers and dancers, spectators and cars, and he wondered out loud if they could all endure the second day of hearings. The inquiries seemed to bring out all the negative aspects of their experience. It seemed that all the possibilities for encouragement had been limited. They had gone from agency to agency. They had met dead end after dead end.

Mi Ma

Grandma used to say There was a Rio in Yaqui lands Where Mo' el m (small birds) and Sewas (flowers) Danced together to give thanks of living on this earth. And to gain happiness.

Grandma and I danced together once. To give thanks of our happiness and thanks of our living on earth together.

In October, 1976, for the first time, Yaqui men and women appeared in costume at a Tucson musical festival. The men danced, the women had a food booth and sang a song about their grandmother. The participation of Yaquis in a public, multi-cultural event was a triumph over a former sense of inferiority. Those against the idea believe that social and religious customs are if not sacred at least private, and should be practiced at home. It has been the responsibility of individuals in the societies to finance celebrations. This is part of the Yaqui commitment. The community received a severe blow last summer when an important annual event called Cristo Rey was postponed several times and finally cancelled due to a lack of funds.

Yaqui Indians do not have crafts for sale, as do other Indian tribes they are not basketmakers or potters; it is forbidden to sell ceremonial objects. They do not think of themselves as “artists” even though artistic efforts go into all of the costumes and masks. In fact these are burned during the Easter ceremony. So it is their total culture as expressed in the ritual they share with others not as pageant, but as belief that is their contribution to American Indian life. Must they place it on the market in order for it to survive?

Bamboo and Cottonwood

Carved by Yaqui hands All day long, Can bamboo or cottonwood feel or know? How they both willPlay and dance all night long.

In each and every religious moment of Yaqui Eastertime Year.

There have always been storytellers among the Yaquis. These individuals have assumed traditional roles in vil-lage life and become known to the people.

Refugio Savala wrote songs cor-ritos-which told of events, often tragic ones, in Yaqui lives. He also passed down the legends he learned as a child. Savala came to Tucson as a child. As soon as he was old enough he enrolled in night school and learned the English language. Later, he became a worker on the railroad and left Old Pascua for long periods of time to travel by train, going as far north as Mistletoe, Oregon. He remembers Mistletoe particularly, because that is where he was marooned in the snow one Christmas Day, and where he shared with his fellow workers the Yaqui legend concerning the birth of Christ.

University of Arizona scholars discovered Savala in 1937. At that time, anthropologists and linguists were just beginning to observe Yaqui village life in Arizona. They called upon Savala to translate the legends and interpret the ceremonies because he had the nature and spirit of the poet.

This gentle storyteller has not been able to participate in the revitalization of the Yaqui community in New Pascua, however, because he lives in a veterans' convalescent home in Tucson. It is here he has worked on his autobiographical manuscript, which he calls “The Love Song of Refugio Savala.” And it is here, also, that he has undertaken what he deems to be the most important task the true purpose of his life, the translation into Yaqui of God's Holy Word.

Savala works slowly, sitting at the side of his hospital bed, with his Bible on the rolling table. He reads a line, then writes out the Yaqui words on a piece of paper. This will be his gift to his people.

Legends collected from Old Pascuans by University of Arizona anthropologists and folklorists are “traditional,” for each embodies a centuries-old moral lesson. They are “original” in the sense that each storyteller has his own way with words.

One of Savala's favorites is “King Lion and King Cricket,” which he bills as an account of the first aerial warfare ever conducted. A cricket who thinks he is king over the insect world is heard boasting by a lion who is king of all the beasts.

The lion challenges the cricket to an all-out battle to determine who has top status, but the cricket refuses. The lion taunts the insect with insults until the cricket agrees, and they go to prepare their armies. The cricket returns with a squadron of wasps who eat the hair from the bodies of the jungle animals. The angry beasts repeat their attack and a replacement squadron of bees is sent in by the cricket. They sting the bare animals until they retreat. Savala is fond of pointing out there was no bloodshed.

To the untuned ear this is simply a pleasurable fable, perhaps a little more exciting than most. But to those who are sensitive to Yaqui problems, it becomes an illustration of one way to resolve the conflict between values (pacifism) and pride (the right to be who we are) when autonomy is challenged. And it makes one painfully aware that to keep their dignity a people must have their own lives under control.

New Pascua was created to provide a devout community whose members care about one another with a continuous social, cultural and religious life. The Pascua Yaqui Association was created to face King Lion.

An angel in white. The young lady represents the forces of good during the Easter Ceremonials - and the enemy of the evil Fariseos.

Resting, or when dancing to the harp and violin, the Pascola Dancers place their masks in the behind-the-head position Dance of the Matachini. The members of this society, whose services are dedicated to the church, represent the good forces against the evil of the Chapayeka. Their standard regalia is a headdress of colored paper and streamers, a gourd rattle and the palma, a trident-shaped frame decorated with feathers.