Spanish missions in the Sonoran Desert

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The Spanish missions in the Sonoran Desert are a series of religious outposts established by Spanish Catholic Jesuits and other orders to spread the Christian doctrine among the local Native Americans, but with the added benefit of giving Spain a toehold in the frontier lands of its colony of New Spain.

1 Geography
2 Father Kino
3 The missions
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Geography

The missions are in an area of the Sonoran Desert called "Pimería Alta," or "Upper Pima Country." It is now divided between the Mexican state of Sonora and the U.S. state of Arizona.

Image:Sonoran desert mountains.jpg

Mountains in the Sonoran Desert

[edit] Father Kino

From 1493, the Kingdom of Spain had maintained a number of missions throughout Nueva España (New Spain, consisting of Mexico and portions of what today are the Southwestern United States) in order to facilitate colonization of these lands.

In the Spring of 1687, a Jesuit missionary named Father Eusebio Francisco Kino lived and worked with the Native Americans (including the Sobaipuri) in the area called the "Pimería Alta," or "Upper Pima Country," which presently is located in northern Sonora and southern Arizona. During Father Eusebio Kino's stay in the Pimería Alta, he founded over twenty missions in eight mission districts.

It was rumored that the Jesuit priests had amassed fortunes and were becoming very powerful. On February 3, 1768, King Carlos III ordered the Jesuits forcibly expelled from New Spain and returned to the home country.

[edit] The missions

Mission Nuestra Señora de los Dolores: founded on March 13, 1687. This was the first mission founded by Father Kino. By 1744, the mission was abandoned. The cemetery remains on the site of the Tumacácori National Historical Park in Southern Arizona.
Nuestra Señora de los Remedios was founded in 1687 and was abandoned by 1730. Nothing remains of this mission.
San Ignacio de Cabórica was founded in 1687 and is located in San Ignacio, Sonora.
San Pedro y San Pablo del Tubutama was founded in 1687
Santa Teresa de Atil was founded in 1687
Santa Maria Magdalena was founded in 1687, located in Sonora.
San José de Imuris was founded in 1687.
Nuestra Señora del Pilar y Santiago de Cocóspera was founded in 1689. It is located in Cocóspera, Sonora.
San Antonio Paduano del Oquitoa was founded in 1689. It is located in Oquitoa, Sonora.
San Diego del Pitiquito was founded in 1689. It is located in Pitiquito, Sonora.
San Luis Bacoancos was founded in 1691
San Cayetano del Tumacácori Mission was founded in 1691 at a native Sobaipuri settlement. Later a church was built. After the 1751 Pima Revolt the settlment and mission were moved to the opposite side of the river and became San Jose de Tumacacori, the presently known location that is a National Historic Park. The farming land around the mission was sold at auction in 1834 and the mission was abandoned by 1840. It is now a National Monument in Tumacácori National Historical Park in Southern Arizona.
Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi was founded in 1691 and is the location of the first church built in southern Arizona. The church was initially established in a native settlement, but then was destroyed by fire, probably during an indigenous uprising. The church rebuilt in new locations twice, the final and largest one being built in 1751 still stands today.
San Lázaro was founded in 1691
San Xavier del Bac (O'odham [Papago]: Va:k), now in Tucson, Arizona, founded in 1692, the present building dates from 1785. The interior is richly decorated with ornaments showing a mixture of New Spain and Native American artistic motifs. It is still used by Tohono O'odham and Yaqui tribal members.

Image:StXavier.jpg

San Xavier del Bac

San Cosme y Damián de Tucson: 1692
La Purísima Concepción de Nuestra Señora de Caborca: 1693
Santa María Suamca: 1693
San Valentín de Busanic/Bisanig: 1693
Nuestra Señora de Loreto y San Marcelo de Sonoyta: 1693
Nuestra Señora de la Ascención de Opodepe: 1704
Los Santos Reyes de Sonoita/San Ignacio de Sonoitac: a rancheria near Tumacacori, 1692

[edit] References

Buford L. Pickens, The Missions of Northern Sonora, A 1935 Field Documentation, Tucson, University of Arizona Press, 1993 reprint
Burrus, E. J., 1965 Kino and the Cartography of Northwestern New Spain. Tucson, AZ: Arizona Pioneers' Historical Society.
Burrus, E. J., 1971a Kino and Manje: Explorers of Sonora and Arizona. In Sources and Studies for the History of the Americas, Vol. 10. Rome and St. Louis: Jesuit Historical Institute.
Di Peso, Charles, 1953 The Sobaipuri Indians of the Upper San Pedro River Valley, Southwestern Arizona. Dragoon, AZ: Amerind Foundation Publication No. 6.
Di Peso, Charles, 1956 The Upper Pima of San Cayetano del Tumacacori: An Archaeohistorical Reconstruction of the Ootam of Pimeria Alta. The Amerind Foundation, Inc. Dragoon, Arizona.
Karns, H. J., 1954 Luz de Tierra Incognita. Tucson, AZ: Arizona Silhouettes.
Kessell, John L., 1970 Mission of Sorrow: Jesuit Guevavi and the Pimas, 1691-1767. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.
Masse, W. Bruce, 1981 A Reappraisal of the Protohistoric Sobaipuri Indians of Southeastern Arizona. In The Protohistoric Period in the North American Southwest, A.D. 1450-1700. David R. Wilcox and W. Bruce Masse, editors. Tempe, AZ: Arizona State University Anthropological Research Papers No. 24, pp. 28-56.
Robinson, William J., 1976 Mission Guevavi: Excavations in the Convento. The Kiva 42(2):135-175.
Seymour, Deni J., 1989 The Dynamics of Sobaipuri Settlement in the Eastern Pimeria Alta. Journal of the Southwest 31(2):205-222.
Seymour, Deni J., 1990 Sobaipuri-Pima Settlement Along the Upper San Pedro River: A Thematic Survey Between Fairbank and Aravaipa Canyon. Report for the Bureau of Land Management.
Seymour, Deni J., 1993 Piman Settlement Survey in the Middle Santa Cruz River Valley, Santa Cruz County, Arizona. Report submitted to Arizona State Parks in fulfillment of survey and planning grant contract requirements.
Seymour, Deni J., 1993 In Search of the Sobaipuri Pima: Archaeology of the Plain and Subtle. Archaeology in Tucson. Newsletter of the Center for Desert Archaeology. Vol. 7, No. 1, pp 1-4.
Seymour, Deni J., 1997 Finding History in the Archaeological Record; The Upper Piman Settlement of Guevavi. Kiva 62(3):245-260.
Seymour, Deni J., 2003 Sobaipuri-Pima Occupation in the Upper San Pedro Valley: San Pablo de Quiburi. New Mexico Historical Review 78(2):147-166.
Seymour, Deni J., 2007 A Syndetic Approach to Identification of the Historic Mission Site of San Cayetano Del Tumacácori. International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Vol. 11(3):269-296.
Seymour, Deni J., 2007 Delicate Diplomacy on a Restless Frontier: Seventeenth-Century Sobaipuri Social And Economic Relations in Northwestern New Spain, Part I. New Mexico Historical Review, Volume 82, No. 4.
Seymour, Deni J., 2008 Delicate Diplomacy on a Restless Frontier: Seventeenth-Century Sobaipuri Social And Economic Relations in Northwestern New Spain, Part II. New Mexico Historical Review, Volume 83, No. 2.
Seymour, Deni J., 2008 Father Kino’s 'Neat Little House and Church' at Guevavi. Journal of the Southwest 50(4)(Winter).
Southwestern Mission Research Center, The Pimeria Alta : missions & more, Tucson, Ariz. : Southwestern Mission Research Center, 1996.