Caxcan

Caxcan
AnonymousUnknown author · Public domain · source
Name	Caxcan
Settlement type	Indigenous people
Region	Zacatecas, Jalisco, Nayarit, Durango, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato
Languages	Nahuatl?, Cora?, Huichol?, Purépecha?
Religions	Mesoamerican religion, Roman Catholicism
Related	Huichol people, Cora people, Tepehuán, Tarascans, Chichimeca

Caxcan The Caxcan were an Indigenous people of north-central New Spain in the region corresponding to parts of modern Zacatecas, Jalisco, Nayarit, Durango, Aguascalientes, and Guanajuato. They played a central role in regional resistance to Spanish colonial expansion, most notably during the Mixtón War and the Chichimeca War, and contributed to the cultural and demographic transformations of northern Mesoamerica during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Overview and Names

Ethnonyms and exonyms for the group appear in sources from Hernán Cortés era chronicles through Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Gonzalo de las Casas, and Juan Bautista de Pomar, and also in administrative records of the Viceroyalty of New Spain and the Real Audiencia of Guadalajara. Colonial officials such as Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán and Cristóbal de Oñate used terms like Zacatecos, Guachichiles, and Caxcaneje to differentiate related populations in reports to the Council of the Indies and to the Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza. Ethnographers including Andrés de Olmos, Fray Martín de la Cruz, and later historians such as Julio Zárate, Manuel Orozco y Berra, and Robert H. Jackson debated whether the name reflects a distinct linguistic group or a coalition identity among several Chichimeca-affiliated communities.

Language and Culture

Early sources suggest multilingual contact among speakers of Nahuatl, Purépecha, Cora, Huichol, and possibly an isolate or extinct language formerly identified with the group in colonial censuses recorded by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún-style investigators. Missionary grammarians and lexicographers like Alonso de Molina and Juan de Córdova documented Nahuatl as a lingua franca in New Spain bureaucratic contexts, complicating identification of an autochthonous tongue. Material culture, ceremonial practice, and reported social rites drew comparisons to neighboring groups studied by ethnologists including Robert Redfield and Julian Steward. Ethnobotanical knowledge and agricultural practices described in chronicles echo patterns recorded for Tarascan and Purépecha territories by researchers such as Eric Wolf and Miguel León-Portilla.

Territory and Social Organization

Colonial maps produced by cartographers under Antonio de Mendoza and later by Sebastián de Belalcázar and provincial surveyors assigned settlements, rancherías, and pueblos between the Sierra Madre Occidental foothills and the Bajío corridor. The Caxcanic region intersected trade and pilgrimage routes connecting Tenochtitlan, Culiacán, Tepic, Colima, and Guadalajara; these corridors appear in itineraries compiled by Gaspar de Villagrán and military reports of Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán. Social organization recorded in encomienda inventories and audiencia proceedings reflects kin-based lineages, local cacicazgos comparable to those described for the Tarascan State and forms of alliance seen among Tepehuán communities. Neighboring polities cited in colonial correspondence include the Chichimeca Jonaz, Guachichil, Ixcatec, and Pames.

Contact and Colonial Conflict (Mixtón and Chichimeca Wars)

Resistance episodes are documented in contemporary chronicles by Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Diego Muñoz Camargo, and military letters from commanders such as Cristóbal de Oñate, Juan de Jaramillo, and Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán. The Mixtón War and later the Chichimeca Wars involved coordinated actions with leaders and communities across the northern frontier, drawing on tactics comparable to those described in accounts of the Nahua rebellions and the Mixtón insurgency. Royal responses included campaigns authorized by the Council of the Indies and troop movements ordered by viceroys like Luis de Velasco (the Elder). The conflict influenced royal policy shifts toward pacification, missionization by orders such as the Dominican Order, Franciscan Order, and Augustinian Order, and the founding of presidios and villas like Zacatecas (city), Aguascalientes (city), and Guanajuato (city).

Demography and Legacy

Colonial censuses, tribute rolls, and baptismal registers in archives of the Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico) and regional cabildos show population decline from epidemic disease documented in epidemics noted by Francisco López de Gómara and fiscal records associated with the Real Hacienda. Survivors and descendents assimilated into mestizo, Nahua, Purépecha, and Cora communities; place names, oral traditions, and toponymy persist in municipal records of Zacatecas, Jalisco, and Aguascalientes. Modern scholarship by historians and anthropologists such as Charles H. Haring, Susan Kellogg, John K. Chance, and Gordon Brotherston traces cultural survivals in craft traditions, ritual calendars, and communal land tenures referenced in twentieth-century fieldwork archived at institutions including the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia and university collections at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

Archaeology and Material Culture

Archaeological surveys and excavations near hilltop settlements and irrigation sites attributed to the region have been conducted by teams associated with INAH, universities like UNAM, University of Arizona, and researchers such as Richard E. Blanton and Eduardo Matos Moctezuma. Ceramic typologies, lithic assemblages, and agricultural terraces compare with artifacts recovered from sites linked to the Teuchitlán tradition, Guachimontón, and contemporaneous northern settlements. Metallurgical finds around silver-rich zones recorded in colonial mine ledgers from Zacatecas (mines) and production accounts by mine administrators like Juan de Oñate suggest integration into early colonial mining circuits that connected to Atlantic trade networks described in merchant records of the House of Habsburg and shipping logs of the Port of Veracruz.

Category:Indigenous peoples of Mexico