The Caxcans of Nueva Galicia, Nahua Warriors of the Northern Mesoamerican Frontier

Summary

When the Spanish entered northwest Mexico in1529 they confronted a bellicose people, the Caxcans, occupying numerous settlements in the southeastern drainages of the Sierra Madre Occidental, los Altos of Jalisco and Zacatecas. The Caxcans—ethnically and culturally related to Nahuatl-speaking groups of Central Mexico, including the Mexica—were one of the northernmost Mesoamerican cultures in sixteenth-century New Spain. Data from recent investigations are presented, clarifying the position of the Caxcan people in the cultural geography of Mexico before and during the Conquest era, and the significance of their interactions with the Spanish as the frontier rebellion known as the Mixtón War of 1541-42 erupted.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Worlds Forever Changed: The Impact of Conflict and Colony in the "New World"   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage